George Washington University Students Raise Beer Money With Their Super PAC

After Daniel Bassali and Winslow Marshall created the Slam Dunks, Fireworks and Eagles Super PAC, they didn't really know where to go with it. So Bassali and Marshall decided to use the money they raised on booze, ABC News reports, and if all goes well, they'll be drinking with members of Congress soon.

"We are two guys who saw things differently, sat down and had a beer and figured out our problems," Bassali told ABC. "We want to bring back that happy hour time, that time just to sit down and have a beer with someone person-to-person instead of politician-to-politician."

Bassali and Marshall, both seniors at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said they want to invite lawmakers out for happy hour to discuss deficit reduction and hopefully find a way to break through partisan gridlock. Some Congressmen attribute the lack of socialization among lawmakers as part of the reason for a lack of civility.

“In college, when you have a problem with someone in your fraternity, you sit down and have a beer with them and talk it out,” Bassali told the Wall Street Journal. "We think members of Congress can do the same thing."

A whole host of college students have started super PACs this year, after Stephen Colbert released a kit to help show them how to start. Colbert did so after receiving a letter from a University of Texas student wrote him a letter asking about starting his own campus-based super PAC.

Another D.C. college student, Georgetown University grad student Robert Lucas, set up CREEP -- a reference to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President of the Nixon-Watergate era.

Northwestern University students launched Cats for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow. Remy Maisel, a HuffPost College blogger, started Penn Staters For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow. Susan Grogan, a political science professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland, started the WeJustWantStephenColbertToComeToOurCollege Super PAC.

As of May 2012, Colbert and his "Super PAC spawn" combined represented 2.5 percent of the nation's registered super PACs. In June, University of Pittsburgh student Daniel Stough won the treasure hunt included in Colbert's super PAC kit.