Earlier this year, Senator Dianne Feinstein indicated it should be illegal to scalp inauguration tickets.  She clearly did not check with the President-Elect before introducing the concept.  Under Senator Feinstein’s standard, the President-Elect is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.

The President –Elect plans to throw a big inauguration party and he is inviting his “yes we can” to “yes we did” friends to pay for it, by bidding for tickets to Inauguration Day.

President Clinton sold tickets to the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House.  President-Elect Obama is selling access to lawn chairs on the Capitol grounds.

In an email with the subject “Your Ticket to History” the President-Elect invites individuals to “show your support for a different kind of politics and a different kind of inauguration with a donation of $5 or more today.”  I added an emphasis on the more, because the minimum amount you can automatically select on the contribution form is $25.  Of course, the fine print indicates you can play the lottery as often as you like.

As a defender of the free market, I am not a proponent of criminalizing individuals scalping their wares.  If the highest bidder is foolish enough to pay for an inauguration ticket that has been issued free of charge, he should have the right to do that.  The President-Elect, however, is biting the hand that feeds.

For the President-Elect’s supporters the “change” they can believe in will be the change they have left after trying to be the highest bidder for a cold lawn chair in the dead of winter in Washington.  Their dollars – more than $5 I might add – will be spent on an inauguration party they paid for, but finally did not get the invite to.