A New York Times article describes the way senators fund vanity institutes with money from corporations which have an interest in legislation over which particular senators have influence.
“The simple fact is these things should not be named after people when they are in office.” said Norman J. Ornstein, an expert in campaign finance at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, a conservative-leaning research group. “We all know what is going on here: the donors are trying to influence the lawmakers.”
August 6th, 2010 at 10:02AM
I certainly agree in principle, but this is not the best possible example. While many of the “institutes” are within universities, this one is not. Also, it’s not clear how hard Kennedy was “pushing” anything in 2009 – he was basically out of action from his diagnosis in mid-2008 until his death in August 2009.
August 6th, 2010 at 10:40AM
Actually, it seems to be closely (though not I guess legally) affiliated with UMass Boston. It’s just next door, far as I can tell, to the JFK Library there.
Link about the Edward Kennedy Institute on the UMass site:
http://www.umb.edu/news/entry/edward_m._kennedy_institute_for_the_united_states_senate_unveils_architectu/