The used car salesmen of politics

Mark Hemingway writes over at NRO (excerpted):

But I suspect that is because direct mail is still one of the few areas where conservatives and Republicans have a major fundraising advantage. If direct mail fundraisers were to become viewed by the general public as the used car salesmen of politics, they could then use it against any Republican who employed the supposedly shady fundraising method.

What else would you call a system that keeps over eighty percent of the funds it raises?

Now you're probably thinking that keeping 83 percent of the money is still a lot. But it's not, and you would understand that if the article didn't demonstrate a pretty shoddy grasp of how direct mail fundraising works.

I don't care how it works. I'll wager that if you let the prospective donors in on the fact that less than twenty cents of every dollar they donate gets to the intended recipient, they'd not donate in the first place.

At least a used car salesman sends you off the lot with a car.