It was a squeaker, but Team GOP prevailed over the Democratic squad in last year's installment of the annual Congressional Baseball Game.

As Politico reported in 2007, lawmakers found that corporate solicitations for the annual ballgame became a heavier lift than usual after the passage of new lobbying and ethics laws. But several brave businesses were willing to step up for '08 -- including the Stanford Financial Group, owned by accused bilion-dollar fraudster Allen Stanford, he of the Caribbean junkets and crusade to block anti-money-laundering rules.

Stanford's company political action committee contributed $10,000 to cover expenses for last year's Congressional game, according to disclosures filed with the Clerk of the House. Overall 2006 fundraising for the game totaled $120,000, according to the Politico report.