Bush's super fundraisers join the queue for favours

[dArKeR]

The sun shone on the plush grounds of the Ritz-Carlton Lodge in rolling Georgia countryside. But the resort's four championship golf courses were strangely empty for a pleasant spring weekend.

Instead, 300 of America's most powerful men and women sat in a windowless conference room to receive the thanks of their hero: President George Bush.

The 300 form part of an elite donor network that has turned Bush's campaign into the most powerful fundraising machine in US history. They are dubbed Pioneers (for rustling up $100 000) and Rangers (getting $200 000). But now, it was revealed to the gathering at the 'appreciation weekend', a new level of fundraiser was to be created.

Those Rangers able to generate another $250 000 could become Super Rangers, the cream of the cream of Republican cash cows. But they had to do it by 15 August. It is a tribute to the awesome levels of power and influence in the room that many would expect to pass that test.

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