Bill Foster abusing the frank?
This mailing from 14th district Congressman Bill Foster’s office, which arrived last week, is indistinguishable from a campaign mailing. From a new congressman who promises “real changes” it’s disappointing to see this flagrant abuse of the frank, the congressional privilege of sending postage-free mail. As you can see in the lower picture, “This mailing was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense.” I can’t recall seeing a newsletter from a congressman that was so full of self promotion, pandering and so indistinguishable from a campaign mailing. Considering that this is an election year, and that he was sworn in just weeks ago, Mr. Foster should have known better. With the kind of personal fortune that he commands, his campaign should have no problem paying for his own mail. Instead taxpayers are paying for it. Since Dennis Hastert never used the frank to send campaign mail, is this the “real change” Mr. Foster is talking about?
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I’d have to dig it out (if we didn’t already recycle it) but Rep. Mark Kirk has been sending franked “newsletters” that appear quite similar to this.
These types of mailers — as “promotional” as many of them appear — are hardly new and hardly relegated to one party or the other so except for you apparently not liking Rep. Foster it’s not clear what the actual problem is.
Rob N, are you suggesting that if members of both political parties engage in abusive behavior (assuming for the moment the accuracy of your claims about Rep. Kirk) that the abusive behavior represents “no problem”? The implications of such an attitude would certainly go some way toward explaining Illinois’ status as one of America’s most corrupt political cultures. In any event, Foster is just one more example to voters that candidates promoting “change” are not necessarily promoting improvement.
I thought this guy was supposed to be a multimillionaire from his lighting company. Why is he trying to stiff us with the bill for his election campaign?
He’s getting off on the wrong foot for sure. I hope Jim Oberweis is paying attention to all of this and calls him on it.
Is the frank the Donald’s brother? I don’t think the Donald should put up with the Frank being abused like that…
“He’s getting off on the wrong foot for sure. I hope Jim Oberweis is paying attention to all of this and calls him on it.”
You mean we get to once again be incessantly bombarded with negative ads from Jim Oberweis in the Fall??? Oh goodie!
I am so tired of the political culture in this country, from both sides. I do vote because it is my responsibility to do so, but lately I have been voting for the lesser of two evils or for some other party candidate that doesn’t stand a chance. I wonder if real change can be brought on by the voters or if we are stuck with the machine that has been created. As far as mailings go and as a new Elginite, I am so far rather impressed with Rep. Ruth Munson’s work in the community. Her mailings have her name all over them but she sponsors some very badly needed community events and services.
Ruth has done some good things, but she’s failed miserably to address the illegal alien scandal that has devastated and transformed her constituency. For years she ignored the problem. When feigning ignorance was no longer possible, she claimed that “immigration” was all a “federal matter.” When the Feds finally starting taking some effective action against the crooks, she voted last year with Noland and the rest of the Blago gang for an Illinois law barring employers from complying with Federal laws against hiring criminal foreign labor. Of course, she’s only reflecting the interests of the Chamber of Commerce and its corrupt lust for cheap, docile peons for the jobs it can’t move to Mexico or China. Nevertheless, her failure to support the interests of honest commerce and law-abiding American residents in her constituency has materially contributed to the causes of the gangster environment disclosed before Elgin’s city council last week.
Having said all this, it is important to recognize that the same social and economic changes that have created Elgin’s gangster environment are the manure feeding the toxic political careers of people like Munson’s opponent, the appalling Blago-flunky Keith Farnham. Farnham, a loyal puppet for the Chicago Ghettocratic Machine, longs to join his buddy Noland in serving Chicago’s gambling interests and advancing the Machine’s culture of poverty, corruption and ethnic division across the Fox Valley. In sum, when you reflect on Munson and Farnham, you’re absolutely right about this nation’s political culture. Given such choices, law-abiding, mainstream Americans are forced to select from Bad and Badder.
As for the subject of Mr. Foster, louislouis is likely correct that it won’t be just “the frank” that gets abused by his office. “The public” may be in line for such treatment, too. Apparently, Foster has hired Sue Klinkhamer as his district director. Mrs. Klinkhamer in her Republican iteration served as the mayor of St. Charles before her 2005 defeat. News reports claim she then moved on to serve as a Washington lobbyist for the City of Chicago, a position which would seem to offer many opportunities for insights into America’s most corrupt political culture. And reflecting the fact that Illinois politicians generally have “interests” rather than “values,” she has now dropped her Republican guise to serve the Blagocrat Foster. But even when she claimed to be a Republican, she displayed a dubious ethical sensitivity while materially advancing the party’s collapse in Kane County. Sue Klinkhamer, you should recall, was a devoted supporter of the admitted liar and suspended States Attorney Meg Gorecki. The Gorecki Gang along with Rip-off Reinert were the primary local agents killing the Republican party here (with supporting roles, of course, by the Georges, Bush and Ryan). How can residents of Foster’s district expect sound government from an office run by someone who thought Meg Gorecki was an appropriate choice for Kane county’s top legal position?
Here are two articles that talk about franking. Looks like both parties do it:
http://www.ilcampaign.org/press/news/national/2007/6-10-07Postage.html
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/30/roskam-tops-illinois-delegation-in-mass-mailings/
Sue Klinkhamer is out for one person and one person only and that is herself. I wouldn’t trust any administration that has her on board.