When I was a mere twenty-two years old, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit our beautiful capitol. While there, I had several conversations with the staffs of our senators. Some of them were acting as what I perceived as tight-lipped. The rumor was that some senators were possibly going to be investigated for abuse of their franking privileges. I had no idea what franking was until I spoke with one staffer that had no problem spilling the beans. Senators have the use of the US mail system to mail, at will, any and all documents and such that pertain to their constituents. This privilege does not include any personal or business ventures of the senators. It seemed that a select few were ignoring this restriction and were using the mail for self-serving purposes. The direct mail services we have available today were far and few between. This meant that most of the mailings performed by these few violators was paid for on a full boat basis. This means that they had no concern that the public was paying the highest postal rates and they couldn't care less about it. The fact is that they had no right whatsoever using this privilege at all. In addition, they were abusing the time of their staffs while they were processing this illegal mail.

Posted by Best Known As Logan's Mom at 4:35 am