Bribery and the beltway.

• Author: Snyder, Steve
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

Jeffrey Birnbaum ("The End of Legal Bribery," June) writes a good story on how Jack Abramoff's conviction may open the floodgates to legally tying questionable campaign contributions to bribery charges.

Unfortunately, he keeps a good story from being a great one by throwing in this sentence at the start of the sixth paragraph: "At the same time, congressional campaigns must be privately funded."

Must be? I'm inferring that Birnbaum is implying there's some constitutional restriction. He passes right by the whole issue of public campaign financing of congressional elections as...