Hand in the till
Posted by Greg on May 24, 2006
It seems our old friend Rick Santorum has managed to do quite well for himself.
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 — an interesting read, to be sure — but they've also compiled a tally of the biggest "getters," the members of Congress who've pulled in the most money from K Street during the 1998-2004 election cycles.
Among current members of the U.S. Senate, guess who's No. 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.
…
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.
What distinguished company. Santorum is the embodyment of the big government nanny state, and he needs to go away, far away.
Other voices:
Everybody is well aware of Rick's deep faith. Here is an example of a true Christian in politics.
Well, on second thought, I suppose that'd depend on what you define as "Christian" behavior.
Rick is judgmental on how others live their lives, dishonest in his personal life, and an implacable hater of anything that helps poor or elderly people get by. These things, of course, do not sound very Christ-like to most people.
However, if we look at another Christian tradition-the one of passing around of the collection plate-then Rick is definitely about as Christian as they come. Lobbyists are definitely yelling "Hallelujah!" as they rake in miracle profits thanks to their paid-for errand boy in the Senate.
Give the boy credit. He's made it to the top of the heap, head of the class, king of the hill. After how many years of trying he has made it on GW's coat tails!
The only thing worse than the Christianists’ sanctimony is their graft. In the current election cycle, Santorum is still the Number One lobbyist favorite.
