Dear Senator Specter:
Last night, I sent e-mails to Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine and to Senator Specter from Pennsylvania, the three Republican Senators who reportedly were leaning in the direction of voting in favor of the dreadful “Stimulus†Bill. In each case, I respectfully shared my views on the bill and urged them not to vote for it.
In short order, I received two robo-replies via e-mail, one from Senator Collins’ office and one from the office of Senator Specter. The reply from Senator Collins’ simply acknowledged receipt of the e-mail and indicated that a response would be forthcoming if I had requested one (I had requested one).
The response from Senator Specter suggested that, because I am not a Pennsylvania resident, I should not expect a response and that perhaps I should not bother him, but rather deal with my own Senators. Here is the pertinent portion of the e-mail for the office of Senator Specter:
(Please do not reply to this email)
Thank you for taking the time to contact me.
I receive a large volume of E-mails, phone calls, faxes and letters every week from concerned citizens like yourself.
Unfortunately, due to the high volume of mail, I can only respond if you’re a resident of Pennsylvania. If you need to find out who your U.S. Senator is please go to www.senate.gov.
Golly, Senator, I apologize for wasting your time, but I am a U.S. Citizen, and I wrote to you because you are about to put your fingerprints on a monumentally horrible piece of legislation that will affect citizens in all fifty states, not just Pennsylvania. In fact, it will affect future generations of citizens of all fifty states, not just Pennsylvania. I foolishly thought that you might want to hear what supporters of your party think of the Bill.
As for my Senators, I assure you I know their names, and I do write to them from time to time. There is no point in writing to them about this Bill, because, if they had their way, the Bill would be twice its size.
I suggest that if you are going to vote with the Democrats on this Bill, you might just as well change your party affiliation, because I want no part of this Bill, or any so-called Republican who votes for it.
Sincerely,
Jim
Specter must have a variety of responses for non-responding. I’ve been busy communicating with my 4 US Senators. Since I still own property in PA, I feel entitled to correspond – using my PA addresses – with Casey and Specter as well as the Jersey guys. Of the 4, only Specter did not respond to me in any way.
Comment by Suzette — February 8, 2009 @ 3:20 pm
Actually, I think anytime we feel compelled to write to any of our own representatives, we should just mass mail it to all. Let these a-holes know that they represent their state as part of a greater whole and that they’d better step on line with the real majority out here in Reality Land before we go 1776 on them.
Arrogant bastards.
Comment by Dan O — February 8, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
Hey Jimbo, at least you got the robo-email. I AM a resident of PA and I’ve yet to recieve anything from Specter’s office after two emails and many attempts at calling. (The phones were busy each of the two dozen tries I made. Except for the one in Scranton which ran a tape telling me to call the Philly office…which was busy.)
Comment by joated — February 8, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
See this is the thing — people are always saying we should “contact our reps” but every time I’ve tried it I get robo-replies (infuriating, insulting, etc.) or no response at all.
They ARE arrogant. Unreachable. I guess I’ve given up. I feel sort of bad for my attitude, and part of me knows they COUNT on people “doing nothing,” but still. Just sayin’.
Comment by dogette — February 8, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
Good for you for at least writing to him! What a douche Specter is though…
Comment by Richmond — February 8, 2009 @ 5:32 pm
I’ve written, both email and hard copy, to several of my elected representatives at one time or another in my life. I’ve also written letters of complaint or praise to Lowe’s, Denny’s, and Pizza Hut.
I received responses from the last three, in two cases personal phone calls. From the politicians? Nary a peep.
That pretty much sums it up.
Comment by LeeAnn — February 8, 2009 @ 5:34 pm
Specter has been a sphincter for a long long time.
Just Damn!
Comment by Dax Montana — February 8, 2009 @ 6:05 pm
Jim, I’m from PA.
Specter is a creep.
He was facing a really tough primary race against Pat Toomey, and both George W. Bush and Rick Santorum (the other senator from PA at the time) went to bat for him OVERTIME in the campaign. When Santorum’s tough race came around, Specter didn’t return the favor.
He also never did much for conservatism.
He’s in love with his own power and likes the perks his senior position gets him.
I’d like to throw the bum out but it’s PA – the shrinking, sane middle of the state is being overwhelmed by the socialists in the big cities. It’s weird that people want to turn the entire state into the trainwreck that Philly’s become, but we elected Rendell!
Comment by Vernunft — February 8, 2009 @ 8:58 pm
Here in Montana, we elected Tester to the Senate from his being an active rancher (versus lawyer/politician), and he’s been pretty responsive the couple of times I emailed/wrote him. I think he’s the only one in all of Congress that sports a flat-top haircut 🙂
Our other guy is “Mad Max” Baucus, who puts on a good show, but is pretty much useless — “an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance” kind of guy.
Comment by DMerriman — February 9, 2009 @ 2:03 am
I sent an email to Lautenberg, but for some reason the mortuary’s server was offline.
Comment by Mr. Bingley — February 9, 2009 @ 7:59 am
Jimbo……
If your memory is still functioning after the assault on your website by Pelosi & Miklos, you should remember my posts where I stated what a Shitheel Snarlin Arlen Sphincter was. It is an everlasting stain on the Republican Party to have ever accepted his party registration in the first place. Prior to the last Senatorial election when he cried Crocodile tears for a possible loss to Pat Toomey…… Bush , Santorum & the NRA all went to bat for the useless turd.After the election he turned back into a Rino & was silent when Santorum was defeated.
I hope all true Republican`s remember this time what Specter really is & slam their day in his face when he comes begging for support again for the upcoming Senatorial election.
Comment by dudley1 — February 9, 2009 @ 10:10 am
Jim:
Yet, he will take RNC money that comes from across the country. I have contributed for years, but I think I will stop until I see how Michael Steele is going.
Comment by Joseph — February 9, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
WEll, fair’s fair. I got a reply to my emails today. They are canned replies and aren’t worth the paper it’s written on but for what it’s worth:
Let’s see if he has really been paying attentioin to his constituents.
Comment by joated — February 9, 2009 @ 7:18 pm
Senator Arlen Specter is playing it smart. He is positioning himself as a moderate for reelection. If the Republican Party wants to get back into power, it needs to move to the center and stay there. The center of the political spectrum is where the most votes are.
Comment by Kevin — February 9, 2009 @ 8:37 pm
My Republican Senator Burr-NC, always sends a signed letter US Mail with a direct response to the concern we bring to him. Lidd Dole did the same, but lost in the last Obamanation election.
Kevin, you are wrong. If the old fool-Specter-runs again he will be toast. No one is going to forget this stab in the back.
Comment by Ernie Nilsen — February 9, 2009 @ 10:07 pm
Kevin,
We just ran a middle of the road republican. Our clocks got cleaned. Why bother to vote when your candidate runs on basically the same platform as the
Dem?
Comment by Mark Reardon — February 9, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
I’m so damn mad after the vote today and ready to stone these assholes. The most infuriating fact about the complete mess is that there is not a damn thing we can do about it right now because the children are in charge until 2010. GAWD! What the hell is wrong with this country?!!!
Comment by Lee — February 9, 2009 @ 11:47 pm
I don’t live in Pennsylvania (as Senator Specter’s e-mail reminded me), so I can’t vote against him, but I can damned sure help in the effort to get Pennsylvanians to vote his sorry ass out of office, which is exactly what I plan to do.
Jimbo
Comment by Jim — February 10, 2009 @ 12:04 am
What a ridiculous idea!!!! Hey, let’s run our party like the Democrats…..middle of the road my arse. Middle of the road means you stand for nothing and will fight for even less as seen by the previous posters (Kevin) desire to “get along”.
Dumbocrats and their High Priest Barack have ZERO desire to get along with us. They want to defeat us…they want us in the permanent minority without any ability to stop their legislation and take over of the American political and economic system.
If you don’t stand for something…you’ll fall for anything.
Comment by RobbieRob — February 10, 2009 @ 6:35 pm