Stephanie Herseth--shame on you

I want to know how much taxpayers spent on the new 4 page campaign flier put out by Stephanie Herseth regarding her "concern for the cost of energy."

Aside from the fact that she ran television campaign commercials two years ago about promising to "get to the bottom of high gas prices" (they have doubled in two short years), I am outraged that a candidate can get away with such brazen use of the Federal Government franking privileges.

This is such an unfair advantage, no wonder it is almost impossible to unseat a sitting incumbent Congressman. Lining their pockets with lobbyist money, spending tax dollars on projects around the state and taking credit for them just isn't enough of an advantage it seems for Stephanie Herseth.

Now she has to waste our money sending every voter in South Dakota a full color brochure with beautiful pictures of her smiling face in the guise of wanting to understand what people think. I am surprised that she didn't tell us about how she was selected as the most attractive Congressman in Washington by Capital Hill Magazine.

If you aren't offended at this, you should be. This is just one small illustration of how Washington works.

Washington is broken. In her debate two days ago, she told South Dakotans that Chris Lien is naive about how Washington works. I guess this just proves it. Stephanie knows how Washington works. It works by spending money by Congressman who waste taxpayers money.

Stephanie Herseth is part of the problem. The problem is a Congress that spends too much. Washington is a place where good people do bad things. It is for this reason Congress has a 9% approval rating.

UPDATE.

After checking into the franking rules and regulations of Congress, it appears this mailing is bordering on the fringes of legality.  I received this mailing today, August 22, which is 73 days from election day.

Here are the rules of the House on sending out taxpayer funded mailings...

House Members are prohibited from sending mass mailings fewer 

than 90 days prior to any general or primary election in which they are a candidate,12

This is an absolute run on the law.  If Stephanie sent this out on the 90th day before an election, she may be within the law, but it would be clear her intent was to use this mailing to influence the election without spending her campaign money.  If she sent this piece out less than 90 days before the election, then she is in violation of the law.  

Either way, this is a total waste of taxpayer money and should be eliminated.