Bush 9/11 Photo Sold as Fundraising Tool

During the 2002 elections the Republican congressional campaign committee sold copies of a photograph of George W. Bush aboard Air Force 1 as a way to raise money for GOP concressional candidates. Democrats called this political fundraising more "nothing short of grotesque."

The White House admits that President Bush gave the RNC permission to use all three photos as a pitch for campaign dough.;

Bill Press of Tribune Media Services wrote: "... Bush's selling of that third photo, taken on September 11, sets a new, disgusting low in political fund-raising."

The White House photograph shows Bush aboard Air Force One, talking to Vice President Dick Cheney hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In a letter accompanying the offer to sell the presidential photographs, Cheney wrote that Bush and congressional Republicans "have cut taxes, reformed education, rallied the nation to confront and fight terrorism both here and abroad and fulfilled our promise to bring compassionate conservatism to Washington."

Has there been a more blatant abuse of political fundraising?