Posted on 01/14/2012 10:26:03 AM PST by Steelfish
Santorum Charity For The Poor Spent Most of Its Money On Management, Political Friends
By Carol D. Leonnig and Dan Eggen, Published: January 13
As Republicans gathered for their national convention in Philadelphia a decade ago, Rick Santorum, who was then an up-and-coming senator from Pennsylvania, launched a charity he said would improve the lives of low-income residents in his home state.
Though Santorum's old-fashioned, shoe-leather approach to campaigning paid off in Iowa, the question for him now is how far he can go from here, given his lack of resources and the need to ramp up a national organization.
“Wouldn’t it be a great thing to leave something positive behind other than a bunch of parties and a bunch of garbage?” Santorum told a local reporter.
But homeless families and troubled children were not the biggest beneficiaries of “Operation Good Neighbor.” Instead, the foundation spent most of its money to run itself, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for fundraising, administration and office rental paid to Santorum’s political allies.
The charity also had significant overlap with the senator’s campaigns and his work on Capitol Hill. Among the leading donors to the foundation were Pennsylvania development and finance firms that had donated to his election efforts and had interests that Santorum had supported in the Senate.
Santorum, whose last-minute surge in the Iowa caucuses has brought new attention to his presidential bid, portrays himself as a common man concerned about the gap between the nation’s rich and poor. But in the case of his charity, his efforts ended up mostly helping his cadre of political friends.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
As a strong Santorum support, I think he needs to quickly rebut this as part of the rapid-fire response that the Clinton Team of “James Carville-Stephanapoulos” would do.
BTW, how is Clinton's Fund to help the poor in Haiti?
Arguing that a Republican didn’t do anything, any standard democrat wouldn’t do is not a strong argument.
Its an unfortunate fact of any organized charity. They have to spend a fair amount of money on themselves.
My grandmother was recently complaining about her church making certain volunteers into paid employees to cover liabilities.
If it’s in the Washington Post, it must be true. /s
I'm shocked. /s
And I don't really have a dog in this hunt. If Santorum would win, I'd work and donate and vote for him. <> It is what it is what it is. Like Rush says.
First off, he's a lawyer, and there's always going to be something wrong with a lawyer.
He managed to make millions while a Senator. Yeah, they all do that. But I don't have to love it, I just have to live with it.
If you really want to give to the poor, you raise money to an established charity like Salvation Army or your local version of Salvation Army. It is always suspicious, to me, to start your own "faux-lantrhopy."
People should start philanthropies if they have some unique vision that isn't already covered by other charities.
I know a few Fauxlanthropists, myself. They start charities, take the deduction, and spend the money on themselves. I know one who started an educational foundation only to send himself and his wife on safaris, trips to Antartica, adventure vacations.
So, you don't really have a great guy here. He may be better than others, but I just can't work up much passion to help defend him.
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