RICK SANTORUM'S HOSTILE TAKEOVER

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

RICK SANTORUM'S HOSTILE TAKEOVER
By DAVID SIROTA

OUT IN Montana, where I live, folks are learning a lot about political corruption. Our senator is a guy named Conrad Burns. After his campaign pocketed more than $150,000 from indicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients, Burns has become the target of a federal investigation into the matter.

But as I tell everyone who seems shocked at Burns' behavior, he's just one of a number of senators who has based his career on manipulating the system of legalized bribery that has overtaken our democracy. Having grown up in the Philadelphia area being represented by Rick Santorum, I should know.


As Washington Monthly reported in 2003, "Santorum became the Senate's point man on K Street"- the corridor in Washington where corporate lobbyists have their offices. His efforts were widely known to be part of the "K Street Project," now at the center of a federal investigation.

Santorum "held weekly meetings with top Republican lobbyists at which he discusses, among other matters, job openings at Washington lobbying firms," according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. One of those attending the first ultra-exclusive meeting was none other than Jack Abramoff.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/14505984.htm

[Olney Blue]

1. Santorum must be stopped at all costs.

Also in the article:


Santorum championed this tax cut just months before he opposed increasing child-care funding for working mothers by saying, "Making people struggle a little bit is not necessarily the worst thing."

[iamahaingttta]

3. Santorum and Delay must both go to prison!

The way these people act all christian-like one minute and then all corrupt-like the next should be criminal!

[0007]

2. Ah yes, Santorum wants the sweat shop day to blossom again

The goal of the gatherings was to fill lobbying jobs with loyal Republicans, who then funneled corporate cash to the GOP come election time. For his trouble, Santorum "has received more money from lobbyists than any other congressional candidate so far in the 2006 election cycle," according to the Post-Gazette.

Santorum denies it. "I had absolutely nothing to do - never met, never talked, never coordinated, never did anything - with... the quote K Street Project," he said. As for his connections to Abramoff, the senator's spokesman recently told local papers that Santorum "does not know him."

But Pennsylvania's junior senator isn't just doing this all in a vacuum - he is a legislator who aggressively pushes Big Money's agenda on the Senate floor.

For instance, he was dispatched by GOP leaders in Washington to kill a minimum-wage increase in 2005. After voting repeatedly throughout his career against raising the minimum from its now 50-year low, Santorum offered an amendment to a minimum-wage bill that seemed likely to pass. The legislation purported to raise the minimum, and gave GOP senators a way to seem like they supported the increase.