Posted on 04/20/2006 10:14:35 PM PDT by peggybac
WASHINGTON — Nobody expects to get a letter from a member of Congress that ends with an expletive.
But that’s what happened when Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, a Missouri Republican, recently corresponded with a resident of her southeast Missouri district. The letter ended with a profane, seven-letter insult beginning with the letter “a”: “I think you’re an ...”
Emerson said she can’t explain how the offensive language made it into the last line of the letter, which otherwise reads like a typical response to a citizen’s question about last year’s testimony of oil executives before the Senate Commerce Committee.
“There is no excuse for this inappropriate letter having been sent, and every apology has been made to the individual who received it,” Emerson said in a written statement to The Associated Press.
“We cannot determine whether the addition to the letter was made by someone within the office or by someone with access to the office, but it is on my letterhead and the responsibility for it lies with me. A valuable lesson has been learned and new procedures will be adopted as a result.”
Spokesman Jeff Connor said the new measures include locking down all computer workstations when they are not being used, increasing the editing of outgoing mail and reviewing policies on who has access to the office.
Each staff member working in Emerson’s office also will be required to take a mandatory seminar on professionalism, Connor said.
“No one has been disciplined at this time because we are not yet able to identify the person responsible,” Connor said.
The man who received the letter, Bill Jones of Centerville, Mo., declined to comment.
Emerson’s office learned about the letter early this week, and her chief of staff, Lloyd Smith, paid a visit to Jones Wednesday morning to examine the letter.
He determined that the offensive language looks like it was added in the congresswoman’s office, Connor said.
Emerson’s office does not keep a copy of constituent correspondence once letters are mailed out, Connor said. That leaves Jones as the only one with an original version.
A copy of the letter made its way to the Missouri Democratic Party, which faxed it to the AP.
Connor said that Emerson personally signed the letter, dated Feb. 15.
She also included a handwritten personal message at the bottom: “PS - please forgive the delay in responding.”
Typical Democrat tactic: Make a mountain out of a mole hill!
Maybe it was McCain.
Her secretary is a dem.
The fact that she signed it, "please forgive my lateness in responding" proves it was added after the fact... quite possibly by a malicious visitor waiting in the office. (Congressmen frequently leave mail by the reception desk, and none hire receptionists. The person at the desk is usually an LA or LC, who frequently leaves the desk to talk to people.)
Even if it had been deleted, they would have a good chance of being able to recover it from the hard drive. Then they could probably tell who created it.
I would have to conclude they don't want to find the responsible party.
Maybe the guy is an as****e.
Howard Stern and MTV are mainstream....what's with the complaints?
Hmmmm. "Anarchist" ?? No - that's 9 letters.
"Alabaman"? No, that's 8.
"Alaskan"? That could be it!
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