What a sorry excuse for not wanting to answer your mail.
Senator Max Baucus is running from the public's demand for a strong public option, and hiding behind any excuse he can fabricate from the tiniest thread.
While most of us here rely heavily on the internet and email to communicate with our representatives, many people still make use of the USPS mail service. If we write and send a letter, we deserve a response.
Rather than face that responsibility, Max Baucus would prefer to pass the blame onto dedicated civil servants.
Recent News - Delayed Mail holds up replies from Max
I don't know how long this has been up, but this is Senator Baucus's excuse note, which he wrote and signed himself, to his folks constituents who are wondering why he's lost his homework.
It's been a busy time....but the dog Senate Postmaster has eaten had an influx of mail....letters that were sent, in some cases, days weeks months ago.
So why bother? Get in touch with me electronically.
Please accept my excuse apology,
Sincerely All the best,
Senator Deep Pockets Max
The memo he refers to indicates delays in receiving "an unusually large influx" of mail from the USPS "in recent weeks". (Not that anyone could have expected that, Senator.) But there is no mention of just how long those delays have been, or just which "recent" weeks those were.
The United States Senate has experienced delays in the letter and postcard mail it has received from the United States Postal Service (USPS) in recent weeks. The Senate Post Office is sensitive to the demands placed on offices with regard to responding to letter mail and has investigated the cause of the delays.
The USPS experienced an unusually large influx in letter and postcard mail destined for the House and Senate in recent weeks causing delays in all incoming mail, including first-class mail, received at the Senate Post Office. We are addressing the issue.
I wrote this diary over two weeks ago, but that was at a time for action in organizing opposition to "deathers" and other extremists trying to kill any civil conversation at town halls, and the now ultra-successful Act Blue campaign to reward progressive members of Congress for holding strong to their promises to reject legislation without a strong public option.
But now that we know the truth about Baucus's Senate Finance Committee never having had the public option on the table, it is clear that he does not listen to his constituents.
And two weeks seems enough time to correct the misinformation.
I had called the Senate Postmaster to confirm the "months ago" claim; there is no contact or identity information on the Senate's website, (Please correct me if I missed it.) but I managed to reach Joe Collins, the current Senate Postmaster, through a series of forwardings. (I got the direct number from Feingold's office now.)
Mr. Collins seemed to be a very serious man, and rather surprised to be taking a call from an ordinary citizen. He asked for my name and why I was calling him.
He explained that the volume of Senate mail has been unusually high recently, which has caused some minor delays. The average time from the postmarked date to delivery to a Senate office, after having gone through a secure process, is about 7 to 10 days. The recent volume has occasionally pushed that average a bit beyond that standard, but it is currently meeting normal expectations.
The memo being used by Baucus as cover for being unresponsive, according to Mr. Collins, was issued during delays encountered back in February and March of this year, delays which were never extreme, and which have been alleviated ever since that time. Concerning letters arriving "months" late, he said that while for isolated cases that was possible, it would not be due to any function of the Senate Postmaster system.
Senator Baucus's D.C. office initially responded that there were significant incoming mail delays. After mentioning my conversation with the Senate Postmaster, the assessment was scaled back to being "perhaps a bit longer" than what Mr. Collins indicated. I was assured that the outgoing mail, however, was consistently handled in a timely fashion.
I asked whether the statement about delayed mail holding up replies being featured prominently on the website's front page and the posting of a months-old memo from the Postmaster might be misleading and discouraging to contact via mail, seeing as things currently seem to be moving so smoothly. The best I could get was that this should be looked at when the site is updated. When that was going to happen was not known.
Two weeks down the road, the website has now been updated, but the outdated and misleading claim remains prominent on the front page, linking to the same months-old excuse note.
These are not the standards I would expect for information on a website used for official purposes of the U.S. Senate.
I'm sure we all appreciate your apology, Senator, but why can't you just own that apology? Why hand off your apology to honest, hard-working civil servants at the USPS and the Senate Postmaster office, the same kind of civil servants who I want to be running my public health care payer system?
Please let Senator "The comments from the audience are inappropriate and out of order", but I "deeply, deeply respect the views of all members of the audience and all Americans who feel deeply about health care reform" know how you feel about his sincerity.
And let the Office of the Secretary Webmaster know how you feel about his website's "Content Responsibility".
After all, Baucus did "urge you just to contact my office, and we'll figure out a way to talk to you. I'll figure out a way to listen to you. I'll be there, personally, to listen to you."
So, give him a call.
Or, send him an email.
Better yet, send him a letter. It should arrive long before we see a bill from the Senate Finance Committee with a public option in it.
His response? You better check with his website while you wait.
Oh, and stop the Double Cross Bull Shield - SINGLE PAYER NOW!
(Or at minimum compromise with the S.O.B.'s by demanding a strong public option.)