He says he despises this system. He applauds the challenge that Al Gore made last week, to have both parties foreswear ads funded with soft money from big donors.
"Sometimes, it is a quid pro quo," Buttenwieser said. "You give and you give heavily, and you become part of the inner group. They invite you to do one of these prestigious things. And I can see the general excitement about the Lincoln Bedroom or Air Force One. But we've been very careful not to do that."
One top party official says it is true: Buttenwieser seeks no favors.
"At this level of contribution, most people are in a position in life where they don't need help from a U.S. senator and don't want anything from the government," said Sen. Robert G. Torricelli (D., N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "Peter Buttenwieser is the best example."
Buttenwieser, 64, hasn't slept in the Lincoln Bedroom. He turned down a White House lunch four years ago, protesting that the party official who invited him had asked for a $50,000 donation. He passed up this year's Democratic convention and its offerings of galas and receptions for the leviathans of the donor world.
Charles Lewis of the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity describes Buttenwieser as part of an "odd phenomenon" - wealthy donors who profess disdain for the same fund-raising apparatus they are feeding.
"Their thinking is if they write a check, they'll get inside the tent and effect more change by talking to those in power than by lobbing grenades from behind the barricades," said Lewis, whose center criticizes both parties' fund-raising practices. "Honestly, who's to say they're wrong?"
