Civic duty / Santorum has the same obligations as other citizens

<http://www.postgazette.com/pg/04333/417912.stm>

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The more Rick Santorum talks about where he lives and where he doesn't, the more it suggests the senator has been spending too much time along the Beltway.

His latest eye-popping remark came Tuesday when the third most powerful member of the Republican caucus reported in Pittsburgh for jury duty. "If this is what people think is a good use of their United States senator's time ..." Mr. Santorum said in the City-County Building.

Answer: Yes.

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But the senator has not only declined to pay the money back, he has also claimed that he "probably" saved the district at least $80,000 when his children were home-schooled before using the cyber school. How can that be? The only way such savings could have been possible was if the family had been able to send their students to Penn Hills schools but then did not. Since Penn Hills school buses don't stop in Leesburg, Va., that was never an option. Therefore, the savings were a fiction.

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These are not the values of a Pennsylvanian. Perhaps the senator needs more genuine home-state exposure than his oft-cited visits to the 67 counties.

The P-G has been hammering hard on poor L'il Ricky. (but he deserves it.)

What a freak.

day.

I sent a LTTE that did not get published, but the gist of it was the compassion in his compassionate conservatism appears only in election years.

1) His appearance Thursday night on the news serving food at the Light of Life Ministries was the first appearance in ten years of serving us as a Senator.

2) Despite Santorum's own constituents sickened and dying during the Chi-Chi's Hepatitis A outbreak last year, Specter managed to make it here to help those in need. Sure, Specter was up for reelection, but this is Santorum's side of the state and Santorum was AWOL. Santorum was on national TV the same noght screaming about anti-gay rights legislation.

3) Santorum told residents of Carnegie and Bridgeville they were not entitled to federal aid after their communities were ravaged by flodding. He explained the government was not a replacement for flood insurance. Never mind his master's brother got plenty of aid for Florida.

Santorum may get to pick and choose his interests in Washington, but he doesn't have the right to pick and choose the constituents he serves in his "home" state.

Dr Batsen D Belfry

They have the nerve to call us that, and then turn around and imply that some people should be exempt from their civic duty.