Rehberg makes taxpayers foot bill for fanciful campaign literature

August 15, 2006 in Denny Rehberg

Holy smokes! And we thought Conrad Burns was abusing his franking privileges! Check out the mailer Rehberg is sending out to Montanans across the state on the taxpayer dime! (I’m working on getting a working link to the original.)

Last week, Rehberg’s congressional office mass-mailed three fliers…that tout the Republican congressman’s legislative work helping children, seniors and veterans, a record that his Democratic foes hotly dispute. The mailings went out just days before a franking cut-off goes into effect 90 days before elections.

A franking privilege is the ability for a government official to send information to his constituents for free, for the purpose of keeping them informed of their lawmaker’s activities. Fine. That’s not a bad thing, I think we’d all agree. The problem, then, with Rehberg’s mailers?

One look at Rehberg’s mailings and you can see why it would be controversial. They portray the deeply conservative rancher-turned-politician as a compassionate politician who works hard to promote public education, veteran welfare and access to health care — hallmark liberal issues. One mailer uses the headline “putting families first,” a phrase that is eerily similar to slogans appearing in Democratic campaigns, including Bill Clinton’s first White House bid in 1992. Rehberg’s photograph and first name appear repeatedly on them, along with a rather selective, (critics say misleading) recitation of his legislative record and headlines stroking “Denny’s” good works.

Shane’s done the legwork and looked up the Representative’s record on these issues, and it’s clear that, while Rehberg may have been busy in Washington DC it wasn’t working on affordable health care and education or protecting our children.

Not only are these inaccurate descriptions (at best) of Rehberg’s actual positions, they fit in with his campaign strategy of running as a Democrat. In that post, I show his actual record on issues he trumpets, like the environment, health care, education. In an earlier post, I wrote about how he voted against funding a successful program combating online child porn.

So…what has the Representative really been doing?

–He’s been busy trying to save himself a buck by repealing the estate tax.

–He’s been working to keep the middle class down, voting himself a pay raise and against a minimum wage hike, among other issues.

–He’s been working tirelessly to muzzle the press.

–He’s been cavorting with Abramoff associates.

–He’s been voting for subsidies and tax breaks for big oil companies.

I can understand why Rehberg doesn’t want to tell the electorate what he’s really been up to…but to bill us for…what? $100K?…worth of mailers that paint a deliberate distortion of his record is disingenuous, at best. It’s more like stealing, actually.

Rehberg should reimburse us every dime he spent of our money on this shameless politicking.

Update: Pogie actually called Rehberg’s office about the mailer and — surprise! His staff thought it was a campaign mailer, too.