In the nebulous world of political fundraising, lies of omission and bullshit statistics are the lingua franca. But few political crimes are more gruesome than the statements made around campaign-finance deadlines—a time when flacks and counter-flacks selectively leak, spin, and at times even selectively report the numbers that partisans all too eagerly regurgitate. Reporters, for example, are leaked how much a group raised, but not how much it has on hand; we’re told about a super PAC’s historic haul, but not that the entire sum came from a single donor. The general public’s ears get sore when people start talking about hard dollars and soft dollars, dark money versus gray money, L.L.C.s and R.O.I. and J.F.C.s, which is precisely how most campaign insiders want it.