Congress - The Jerk Parade Begins
A few days ago, I got my first wave of responses from Congress to my emails, and I posted the results on StolenThunder. I’m expanding on them here with other results received. In short, it’s pretty much a Jerk Parade.
Our first contestant is Richard Durbin (D-IL), whose auto-reply says his email address is “no longer active“. The writer is directed to go through his Congressional web site, which screens out non-constituents.
Next up is Craig Thomas, (R - Wy) who wrote in his auto-reply:
“Our office policy is to reply only to inquiries from Wyoming
residents who include their full mailing address. These inquiries will
receive a written response via electronic mail.”
It really says something when a Congressman’s first response is to tell more than 98% of the country to drop dead.
Tom Allen (D-Me) states “Due to the amount of mail I receive, I regret that I am only able to respond to mail from the state of Maine". Bearing in mind the unlimited franking privilege, this is not at all a reasonable response, but I suspect will be a common excuse.
Jim Sensenbrenner, (R - Wi) wrote in his auto-reply:
“If you are not a constituent, please note that your communication has been received and recorded.”
Nothing like go-to-hell from a man who gets paychecks from all Americans, but feels he owes nothing to anyone but people he wants to notice. I’d call that arrogance.
A lot of attention has been focused on Arlen Specter (R-Pa). Arlen is very organized in his mail: “By following these simple steps, you will help me respond to your concerns in a more prompt and efficient manner.”
Efficient, no doubt, but it won’t be Senator Specter who responds. The “simple steps” which followed that statement, were directions to other offices and services, and what couldn’t be shuffled off to someone else, was directed to the senator’s staff. In no case, it appears, is anything an ordinary person says or does of concern sufficient to involve the personal attention of the Senator.
Jim Moran (D-Va) wrote in his auto-reply:
“Thank you for visiting my website. I hope you found it a helpful resource and look forward to reviewing your comments in more detail. Please feel free to contact me again in the future.”
Notice, please, that Congressman Moran makes no mention that he intends to respond.
French Waiter’s Syndrome, that : “Zaat is not my table, monsieur”
Jeff Flake (R-Az)* wrote “All legislative inquiries to my office are
responded to via the United States Postal Service”
Others are downright cute - Vito Fossella (R-NY) directs his constituents to “contact my office” by telephone (apparently, there is something wrong with mail and e-mail where the Congressman is concerned), and says “If you live outside the 13th Congressional District, my office will be happy to forward you [sic] thoughts and concerns to the Member who represents you.” Geez, sounds like this guy took lessons from John Gotti!
Tom Davis (R-Va) wrote in his auto-reply:
“In order to help me respond more efficiently to you, please be sure that
you included your full name and mailing address in your e-mail”
This sounds good, until you realize that the mailing address means he won’t reply by email, and plans to screen out inconvenient mail.
Tom Latham (R-Ia)** is a bit more courteous. He says “if you are not a resident of Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District, I still appreciate reading your comments. You may also want to contact your own Member of Congress.”
I will be interested to see if many more Congressmen show this kind of class.
Some did go out of their way to assure that they would respond.
Sherrod Brown, (D-Oh)* wrote “Your correspondence is important to me and I want a
chance to review your message prior to sending a final response.” but also notes “I am unable to respond to individuals who do not reside in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District.” Call it half and half.
Lamar Smith (R-Tx) wrote in his auto-reply:
“Be assured that I have received
your e-mail. I will make every effort to reply to your e-mail as quickly
as possible.”
And finally, Gil Gutknecht (R-Mn) wrote in his auto-reply:
“My top priority as your Congressman is answering your questions and
listening to your concerns. Responding to incoming mail is of utmost
importance to me. Unfortunately, technology is not perfect. In the past,
viruses have delayed e-mails for several weeks,”
There it is, folks. A bunch of jerks and clowns, but also a few class acts. It remains to be seen if the final response will show a sense of duty.
I’m still going to wait a couple weeks for the responses. After that, we’ll draw up our state rosters for a more direct approach. I, of course, plan to cover Houston and Texas.
* I have corrected Rep. Flake’s state to Arizona. I have corrected the “Ohio’s 13th District” reference replacing it with Rep. Flake’s actual comment. I then looked up Sherrod Brown’s response and corrected that point. Thanks to Shu Shu and Pat Curley for catching that.
** I have corrected the abbreviation of Iowa, from “Io” to “Ia". Hat tip to Mark.