Twenty years ago, then-Speaker of the House Jim Wright (D-Tex.) was forced to resign when his lucrative book deal came to light. Wright's "friends" bought multiple copies of his book, priced at $5.95, to get around federal election laws limiting contributions.One of the things that got Wright and his friends caught was the low price of his book. To get any real money to his campaign's coffers (or to Wright personally), folks had to buy hundreds of books. Such bulk purchases were not logical or defensible - even by a skilled and powerful politician.
Fast forward to today . . . U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has a Wright-like book deal of his own. A publisher has given Teddy an $8 million advance on a memoir and has found away to cover a big chunk of that advance, without resorting to solicitation of bulk purchases. Instead, they're going to issue a special "limited edition" of 1,000 books and sell them for $1,000.00 each. (Link to story here.)
Pretty slick deal, don't you think?
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