I like what Pat Toomey stands for and hope he can run Specter out.
Pat is speaking at the Franklin County Lincoln Day Dinner tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say. On a related subject, I got a call from the RNC yesterday soliciting money, and I told them they wouldn’t get one cent from me until Steele comes out and publicly cuts of Specter, Collins and Snowe. All I got in return is “we have to remain united” blah, blah, blah.
This Pennsylvanian isn’t blushing. I already told the staffers at Specter, Casey, and Schwartz’s offices that I didn’t think Philadelphia’s crime fighting money should be coming out of the pockets of my elderly parents in Michigan. They didn’t have much to say about. I suppose they too think federal money comes from the tooth fairy.
And still no Pennsylvanian has stepped up to the plate and kicked Specters ass and at the very least put him in intensive care?
The article is spot-on: the problem is with the voters, not the politicians.
If a politician who secured and touted earmarks was voted out of office (because of those earmarks), the entire earmark process would end.
However, it is the sad truth that politicians keep getting re-elected BECAUSE they “bring home the bacon”. The politician knows that his job rides on this, and he delivers what WE, the voters, demand of him. He is giving us what we want.
Obama was elected on the same platform: giving away the “goodies”. He made it clear that he would take from those who have, and give to those who wanted. And he won.
It is the body of the Republic which has putrefied; the politicians are merely the symptom of that corruption.
Earmarks are just plain embezzlement. Just as if a friend or family member was buying you gifts with money embezzled from his employer would be wrong, it is wrong of voters to benefit from funds embezzled via earmarks from the general treasury. People have to get past the idea that “as long as I’ve got my pie I don’t care what effect it has on others”. That’s the union way of thinking.