Republicans: do they ALL automatically think they’re above the law?

Today’s WaPo features a story on Rick Santorum having lied about continuing to meet with lobbyists, which he had pointedly denied. Reporters Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Charles Babington write: After the outcry by Democrats and others, Santorum announced that the lists would no longer be distributed at the meetings, and then he canceled the meetings entirely. Now, his aides said, he has resumed the meetings with lobbyists. Their purpose is to help Santorum's reelection effort, but many of the same topics other than jobs are discussed, aides and participants said. --- Mark Kleiman asserts that the Heritage Foundation - which has hosted one of the recent meetings - has in the process illegally contributed to Rick Santorum’s political campaign, because its status as a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) operation precludes such de facto contributions to political campaigns. Mark isn't inclined to hold his breath waiting for the IRS to investigate, y'know, like, say, the way it went after a church wherein the pastor gave a sermon critical of President Bush, or the way it gave the audit stink eye to a foundation that was critical of illegal campaign spending by Tom DeLay. Update: Santorum/Heritage: update and retraction by Mark Kleiman Mark says he has been informed that someone called Santorum's campaign, which claimed it paid Heritage $500 for the meeting space. And assuming that's true, that the whole transaction was legal, and he was wrong to so quickly accuse Heritage of violating the rules.