It's not news that each year, the national party conventions become less about substance and more about eating, drinking, schmoozing and partying.

But this year, the obligatory round of soirees at night clubs, art museums and fancy hotels in both Denver and in Minneapolis-St. Paul -- all paid for by corporate and labor lobbyists and executives -- seems particularly out of place.

That's because last year, Congress enacted an ethics overhaul that specifically banned lobbyist-funded parties thrown to honor elected officials. Such festivities had become an increasingly notorious centerpiece of past conventions. (Remember the nightly "warehouse" parties that lobbyists threw for Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, at the last three GOP conventions?)

With the enactment of the new lobbying and ethics rules, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pledged to end the "auction house" atmosphere that she blamed on the GOP.

But the House Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics) Committee, at least, appears to have found a way around that ban. An ethics panel memorandum explaining the rules lets House members off the hook if the party is for a congressional "delegation" of two or more, as opposed to an individual member of Congress.

As campaign finance, lobbying and ethics regulations become more stringent on all other fronts, the absence of restraint at the conventions stands out all the more.

The panel also exempted any party that falls on the weekends immediately before or after the conventions -- typically prime partying windows. The ban applies only during the actual convention dates, the ethics committee memorandum helpfully noted -- Aug. 25-28 for the Democrats' Denver gathering, Sept. 1-4 for the GOP's blowout in Minnesota.

Interestingly, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics carved out no such exemptions, meaning that senators and House members at the conventions will effectively follow different rules.

"I think what it will do is starkly demonstrate the absurd nature of the House Ethics Committee guidelines," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21. Wertheimer's organization joined with five other pro-reform advocacy groups last month in a letter to House members, urging them to "comply with the purpose, spirit, meaning and language" of the new lobbying and ethics rules. The letter called the ethics panel memorandum "an indefensible and incorrect" interpretation of the new law.

House Democrats have said that they are complying with the rules. But the many festivities underwritten by corporate and labor interests promise to be as elaborate and costly as ever. Party hosts in Denver will include Amgen, Coca-Cola, the Service Employees International Union and Xcel. Corporate party-throwers in Minneapolis-St. Paul will include AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Wells Fargo and Co.

This constant round of privately funded parties underscores the free-for-all atmosphere that still defines the conventions, even as the campaign finance and ethics rules have tightened up elsewhere. The McCain-Feingold law banned all federal candidates and party committees from raising and spending soft money, yet unregulated contributions continue to flow freely to the nonprofit "host" committees that pay for the convention.

The Sunlight Foundation recently released a list of more than 370 parties and events that will take place at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. The nonprofit watchdog group is launching a "Party Time" project that will track private parties and congressional fundraisers during and after the convention.

This time around, the host committees will collect 14 times as much as they did in 1992, according to the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute. The Denver host committee's haul is expected to be $55 million, according to a recent CFI analysis, while Minneapolis-St. Paul donors will give $57 million. The convention host committees, moreover, have disclosed virtually nothing about the size or source of their donations.

Ironically, the post-Watergate reforms that created the presidential public financing system specifically set out to end the shadowy special interest money sloshing through conventions. This year, the convention committees for the two major parties will each receive $16.4 million from the U.S. Treasury to supposedly pay for the conventions.

But that money will be dwarfed by the corporate and lobbyist donations going to the host committees, which, thanks to the Federal Election Commission's interpretation, are exempted from the soft money ban on the grounds that the convention hosts are, ostensibly, engaged in civic boosterism.

"You can't justify using public funds to finance these conventions any more, if in fact they are going to be drowned by the unlimited soft money that comes in on top of them," Wertheimer said.

Even more ironically, the presidential contenders being feted at these events have taken pains to otherwise distance themselves from lobbyists and special interests.

At a time when network news coverage of the conventions is dropping off, these party gatherings are not only losing their political meaning, they're becoming a growing source of embarrassment for party organizers and their candidates. As campaign finance, lobbying and ethics regulations become more stringent on all other fronts, the absence of restraint at the conventions stands out all the more.

An understated observation tucked into the CFI's recent analysis says it best: "Lavish conventions with million dollar podiums, fancy skyboxes and Broadway production teams are not necessary to the democratic process."

CORRECTION: An older version of this column was posted earlier. This is the updated version.

Want to stay ahead of the curve? Sign up for National Journal’s AM & PM Must Reads. News and analysis to ensure you don’t miss a thing.