Trying To Keep Washington Corrupt

To show how seriously Bill Frist is taking the corruption in Washington here
is a nice press release:

CREW CRITICIZES CHOICE OF SANTORUM TO CREATE SENATE ETHICS PACKAGE
Santorum’s Corrupt Behavior Disqualifies Him for Ethics Task Washington, DC
– The choice of Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) this week to head the ethics
charge in the Senate demonstrates Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-TN) deaf
ear to the importance of high ethical standards in the Senate.

According to The Washington Post, shortly before Thanksgiving, Senator
Frist, asked Sen. Santorum to draft a package of lobbying restrictions.

“Senator Santorum’s history of unethical behavior suggests that he is
more likely to undercut any real ethics reform than he is to toughen ethics
rules,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. “We strongly
question Senator Frist’s decision to choose a Senator that CREW listed as
one of the 13 most corrupt Members of Congress.”

Among Sen. Santorum’s unethical conduct:

•Sen. Santorum runs the K Street project, created by conservative
activist Grover Norquist and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), in
which he ensures that all top lobbying and trade association jobs are filled
by Republicans;

•Two days before Sen. Santorum introduced a bill that would benefit
private national weather companies at the expense of the National Weather
Service, the Senator’s political action committee, America’s Foundation,
received a $2,000 donation from the chief executive officer of AccuWeather,
Inc., a leading weather data provider located in State College, PA.;

•Working to undermine public confidence in the National Weather Service,
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina Sen. Santorum stated in an interview
with a local Philadelphia radio station that the National Weather Service
failed to predict the storm’s fury and that its warnings were “not
sufficient.” In fact, the early warnings about Hurricane Katrina issued by
the National Weather Service were praised for their accuracy by news
organizations such as Associated Press, NBC News and The New York Times.

•Since the 2001-2002 school year, at least three of Sen. Santorum’s
children have attended a Pennsylvania cyber charter school in Penn Hills,
PA, costing local taxpayers about $67,000, despite the fact that the Senator
and his family spend most of the year in Virginia.

***

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a
non-profit, progressive legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public
officials accountable for their actions. Please visit
www.citizensforethics.org for more information or www.beyonddelay.org for
CREW’s report.

Article
link

Amazing. One of the first posts I did when I stared this blog was over
Santorum’s bill to limit public information from the National Weather Service.
Basically what he did that is the same thing that is causing the fury over the
Abramoff scandal. He is selling his power in Washington and that type of
behavior is illegal.

Of course Bill Frist making this pick is no shock at all. Perhaps Frist hopes
it will help him out with his little legal problems going on.