A week after the election, David Plouffe, the head of Obama for America, wrote: "We've been reviewing the books, and the DNC went into considerable debt to secure victory for Barack and Joe. . . . Please make a donation of $250 or more today and receive your Obama Victory T-shirt."

Americans barely have the stomach, or the money, to bail out the banks, the automakers and various foreign governments. Now the Democratic National Committee is seeking a handout?
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But now, despite the extent to which Americans have supported the Obama campaign, comes Plouffe again with an e-mail I find particularly riling. "Will you support the Obama-Biden transition," he wrote on Nov. 21, "with a donation of $250 or more?"

Money from "grass-roots supporters," he claims, will prevent the "secretive undertakings" of previous presidential transitions.