The 50 Richest in Congress

Roll Call posted September 22 its list of the 50 richest members of the Senate and House of Representatives. The list could be flawed, though, because as noted by Roll Call, "It is based on the lawmakers' financial disclosure forms, which are extraordinarily unreliable sources of information."

I could paraphrase, but Roll Call says it best: "The disclosure rules allow Members to report assets in broad categories, so there is no way to tell the difference between a $20 million investment and a $5 million investment. The top category on the Members' forms is 'over $50 million," so it is impossible to accurately account for anything worth more than that.... There is also a gaping loophole for assets owned by the Members' spouse or dependent children; anything worth more than $1 million in value can be reported as 'over $1 million.' There is no way to tell whether that is $1.2 million or $1.2 billion."

Additionally, assets not used to generate income do not have to be reported, such as houses that are not used as rental properties. With those caveats noted, the following is Roll Call's list of the wealthiest members of Congress.

The top five include three Democrats and two Republicans:

Number 1: Sen. John Kerry, Democrat, Massachusetts, with $230.98 million.

Number 2: Rep. Jane Harman, Democrat, California, $225.96 million.

Number 3: Rep. Darrell Issa, Republican, California, $160.62 million.

Number 4: Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Democrat, West Virginia, $80.40 million.

Number 5: Rep. Robin Hayes, Republican, North Carolina, $78.96 million.

Rounding out the top ten are three more Democrats and two more Republicans:

Number 6: Rep. Vern Buchanan, Republican, Florida, $65.49 million.

Number 7: Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Democrat, New Jersey, $55.33 million.

Number 8: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat, California, $52.34 million.

Number 9: Sen. Edward Kennedy, Democrat, Massachusetts, $47.62 million.

Number 10: Sen. Gordon Smith, Republican, Oregon, $28.65 million.

The rest of the top 20 were as follows: Rep. Michael McCaul, Republican, Texas; Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, Republican, New Jersey; Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee from Arizona; Sen. Claire McCaskill, Democrat, Missouri; Sen. Bob Corker, Republican Tennessee; Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Democrat, New York; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Democrat, California; Rep. Nita Lowey, Democrat, New York; Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Republican, North Carolina; and Sen. Olympia Snowe, Republican, Maine.

Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama did not make Roll Call's top 50 list. Former Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York came in at number 29 on the Roll Call list.