Step into the wayback machine, kids. We're going to travel all the way back to 2010. You may remember that Frank Guinta made a lot of noise about the alleged abuses of the House franking system by Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter. From Guinta's Blog:
There is a thin line between maintaining a rapport with one’s constituents and electioneering. These pamphlets violate the idea of a “Congressional Update,” and show an abuse of a representative’s franking privileges. This is not the first time either, that Carol Shea-Porter has been singled out in the past as well for exploiting tax dollars for personal gain.
Yes, Frank was quite incensed. While he was on the campaign trail, that is. Once he landed in Congress, he became the number one franking abuser.
Lets Be Frank About Frank's Franking:
The Bakersfield Californian had a story in their Sunday edition about how much members of Congress spend on franking privileges:
* Also among individual House members, Rep. Frank C. Guinta, R-N.H., spent the most on franked mail in 2011: $164,650.
And in 2016? From Roll Call
On average, members running for re-election in non-safe districts spent $172 per day on mail franking. That’s far more than the $63 per day that members in safe districts have spent.
Three of the top four spenders on mail between January 2015 and March 2016 are running in some of the most vulnerable districts in the country: Republican Reps. Rod Blum in Iowa's 1st District, Frank C. Guinta in the New Hampshire 1st and Will Hurd in the Texas 23rd.
Jay Ruais, chief of staff for Guinta, said the congressman is “committed to openness and transparency, including communicating our efforts on behalf of Granite Staters, important at a time when many feel alienated from their federal government. As a result of our correspondence, constituents have offered ideas for legislation that Rep. Guinta introduced in Congress, and a few have even been signed into law.”
Yeah, Frank is a real paragon of transparency. From How Do You Spell Apology:
On October 27, 2014, WMUR televised a debate between Guinta and Shea-Porter. I was there. When Shea-Porter asked about the money, Guinta said he’d been cleared by the FEC, in Dec. 2010, before he was even sworn in, and he had been exonerated. He accused Carol of lying about his record, and huffily announced, “The people of NH ought to know the truth.”
He's right about that. The people of NH ought to know the truth. It's just that Frank won't ever tell it. I'll give the Union Leader the last word:
There is something troubling as to why an individual of "this type" would receive any kind of support from anyone at all. But I see yuuuuuge signs for this awful individual everywhere. The people of this nation now lack moral values (something the right loves to scream about). When I heard a (educated professional) woman on NPR crowing about Trump I cringed and realized the toilet was flushed a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteGuinta and Trump are the disease spawned by years of millions of infected bites - all accepted happily by a complacent nation, preferring to look for problems outside our borders. Looking in the mirror has proved too painful.