Senator Casey: Tone Deaf or Lazy? October 1 2007
On the 21st of September I wrote to Senator Casey asking him if he would donate the fifteen thousand dollars in Norman Hsu donations to charity, much like Governor Rendell has done.
I finally got my reply…. I only wish I had saved my inquiry.
Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding S.1, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007. I appreciate hearing from all Pennsylvanians about the issues that matter most to them.
On January 18, 2007, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 96 to 2. It is a strong ethics reform bill, and I applaud its passage. The U.S. Senate has listened to the people of Pennsylvania and the United States Senate and has taken an important step toward cleaning up the ethical problems that have been far too prevalent in recent years. Strong restrictions on gifts and travel, along with greater reporting and transparency, will give the American people more confidence that actions taken in Washington are in their best interest and not driven by corrupting influences. I, of course, supported the bill and voted for it on final passage
I was disappointed that my amendment to make participation in the K Street Project a federal crime faced resistance and was not adopted. We were able to ensure that a provision to ban wrongful influence in hiring decisions was included in new Senate rules. However, a stronger measure would be a more effective deterrent and would have sent a clearer signal that this practice will not be tolerated.
Many of my constituents called or wrote my office regarding Section 220 of the bill, which concerned paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying. I am also writing to let you know that an amendment offered by Senator Robert Bennett and adopted by the Senate deleted that section from the final version of the bill.
The bill that passed the Senate is a good first step and I hope that it is implemented in its entirety soon. In the meantime, I am drafting and will implement even tougher ethics rules of my own for myself and my staff.
If you have access to the Internet, I encourage you to frequently visit my web site, http://casey.senate.gov. In the months ahead, I will continue to develop the site in order to allow you to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington. If you wish to e-mail me, you can do so on the web site.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.
Heh. I did not contact him regarding S1 or K Street. While I did not expect Senator to personally read my inquiry, (he’s supposedly much too busy), I did expect someone to read it. Not send me a canned response.
However, I did include a link to my post, detailing the Hsu donations. My server logs indicate that someone in from the Senate did read it.
So what does this mean?
Bobby Casey has fifteen thousand dollars in donations from a thief in his coffers, that he’s unwilling to get rid of.
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