Gabby Watch

It might sound crazy to assume that the mainstream news media in Arizona doesn’t do a good job of reporting what is going on in Washington, D.C., but that is exactly what Gabby Giffords believes.

In early July, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call released a report on the 51 House freshmen and their spendings during the first quarter (January-March) on “Franking’s”. Franking’s are mass mailings sent out by members of Congress to constituents in their districts, that are paid for through office budgets, which are taxpayer funded. The Blue Dog Coalition member, Gabby Giffords ranked as the 6th-highest-spender on franked mail, consuming nearly $40,000 in just her first three months in office. Since March she has spent another $40,000, making a grand total of $80,000 spent in just 7 months in office. Still trying to pass herself off as a fiscal conservative, she claimed that she is “very frugal” about her mailings.

So what exactly is in these mailings? Well one of the franks that she sent to the 8th District was a 4-page piece that had her picture in color 4 different times. Another was a piece that declared “Giffords fights for overhaul of immigration laws”. Wonder if her next mailing will talk about how she recently cast a vote in favor of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which gives illegal immigrants government health care benefits?

Gabby has said that these mass mailings need to be colorful and flashy, otherwise the constituents who receive them might just toss it out as junk mail. The more colorful, the more expensive - so much for fiscal responsibility.

Gabby’s defense, however, is that she feels it is her job to keep her constituents fully informed on the issues. Does Gabby not know about something called a newspaper? The internet? Television? If any of her constituents don’t have access to any of the above, they could always write her. There is nothing wrong with concerned citizens writing their Representatives or Senators in DC and receiving a personal, written response. Every Congressional office does it multiple times a day, and there is nothing wrong with it. That is honest government.

But mass mailings are something entirely different. Gabby’s colleague on the Hill from Arizona, Congressman Jeff Flake has said franked mail is campaign mail in disguise, and that freshmen in Congress are told to be careful with how many staffers they hire so that there is an extra one or two hundred thousand dollars in the bank for these mass mailings. Flake said that this is “blatant campaign mail.”

That begs the question, who is it receiving these mailings? Who is Gabby really interested in “spreading the word too”? Surely not solid Republicans, because they are going to see right through her. Of course her strong Democratic supporters don’t need them because they are already behind her. So who is left? The independents. The swing-voters. Gabby has to convince them that she is doing good things in DC because it will be their votes that make the difference in 2008. That right there is campaigning with tax-dollars.

So much for fiscal responsibility. So much for honest government. So much for a lot of things Gabby had promised.