Will Bunch of Attyood reports that Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) was the number 1 recipient of contributions from lobbyists.
Lobbyist money...he's No. 1, he's No. 1!
The folks over at the Congress Watch of Public Citizen have put out a report on the lobbyists who bankroll Congress. It features a list of the 20 biggest givers among lobbyists...[and getters too.]
And guess who was number 1? That's right, the man who helped found the very K Street Project and then tried to deny its existence, our own junior senator from right here in Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum. Looking at those four election cycles from 1998 through 2004, Public Citizen found that the Pa. Republican had raked in $1,163,560 from registered lobbyists -- $838,133 from individuals, and $325,427 from their political action committees.
Only Four Members of Congress Received Over $1,000,000
That puts Santorum in an elite club. Only four members have raised more than $1 million from lobbyists during that period -- the one who raked in the most, former Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle, with $1,687,721, was booted out of office by South Dakota voters in 2004.
The one current member of Congress who's taken in more lobbyist cash won't be around for much longer. That would be former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who raised $1,322,906, but is resigning early next month to deal with his criminal indictment in his home state of Texas and is also under investigation for his ties to a disgraced lobbyist (what a coincidence), admitted felon Jack Abramoff.
(In the Wouldn't-You-Just-Know-It Department, the other member of this dubious $1 million club is Pennsylvania's other senator, Arlen Specter, at $1,019,317. Is this state "corrupt and contented" or what?)
Anyway, lest there's any doubt who's the king of K Street dollars, the study also took a snapshot of all members of Congress in the current 2006 cycle and found that Santorum is now the undisputed leader, with another $560,738. His closest challenger, Hillary Clinton, with her sights on the Democratic presidential nod in 2008, is a not-close second at $417,565.
Who would have guessed that our very own Senators from Pennsylvania would be such hot targets for lobbyists. Why should this be the case? Does our state receive any special largess for this? I haven't noticed if so.
Santorum Accuses Bob Casey's Campaign Of Spying On His Empty PA House
One obscure news bit you may have missed last week, its that Senator Rick Santorum has asked for and received extra patrols of his empty PA house. He's been accused of keeping a phony residence in Penn Hills, Pa to maintain his PA residence for voting status. After these reports came out, Santorum's wife accused a neighbor who works for the Casey campaign of peeping through the windows. How else could they have known it was empty?
So, no wonder Santorum is so busy trying to change the subject, accusing Democrat Bob Casey's campaign -- without any apparent evidence -- of peeping into the house that he claims as his voting residence in Penn Hills, Pa. (The suggestion that the house is empty came from a local newspaper reporter). There's nothing inherently illegal or improper about taking money from lobbyists, but with voters on the warpath about ethics in Washington (and in Harrisburg), this doesn't look good, either. This report doesn't even look at lobbyist donations to Santorum's "leadership PAC," America's Foundation, which paid for all those trips to Starbucks.
Now, voters, reporters -- and maybe the Casey campaign itself -- should start asking more questions about just what Santorum might have done in return for all that dough.
Conclusion
Senator Rick Santorum is no doubt the worst of all 100 Senators in so many ways it's difficult to count. But it's time for the gloves to come off and start to highlight the ugly underside of Santorum's rise to power.
While there is nothing improper about receiving money from lobbyists, it is a fair question to ask what they all got for their money. Pulling out the details of this funding is a good place to start. Voter in PA are furious that our State legislators tried to give themselves a raise. And we just voted 16 incumbants out of office, including the two Republican State Congressional leaders.
And it's also a fair question to ask what is the story about this empty house being kept to proof residency. If they are not actually living there this could turn out not to be a valid claim.
These are the types of political shenigans PA voters are sick and tired of. 20% of Republican voters who voted for Swann in the primaries, skipped over Santorum's name on the same ballot and left the State Senate GOP slot blank. Things are not looking good for Santorum who faces Democratic challenger Bob Casey in November.