Senator Graham, on Casual Day
I admit, I enjoy this kinda sorta correspondence I have going with Senator Lindsey Graham. For years I would send him emails, or put my name on petitions for various causes, and all I would get back would be those expensive form letters, sparing no expense to let me know, via snail mail, that he was glad I had contacted him, and then going on to explain how his beliefs are more valid than my beliefs, so he is going to continue to damn well do what he's been doing all along.
That was frustrating and disappointing.
When I emailed him asking him to please stop spending my money on postage, he at least ignored me and didn't send me a letter in the US Mail telling me he was happy to hear from me, but it didn't matter a wit. It just simply didn't matter a wit, without the letter.
When Progressive Change Campaign Committee put me on television asking Senator Graham to please don't extend the social security retirement age, I believe that was what they call a game changer. I had his attention. He didn't send me a letter, but that's all right. The ad caused one of the editors of Charleston's Post and Courier to have a conniption, and that was good enough for me, even if Senator Graham hadn't been watching when Keith Olbermann aired the ad on his last episode of Countdown.
So, now that my 15 minutes of fame appears to have expired, I was happy to receive an actual email response from Senator Graham about an email I had sent:
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I appreciate the opportunity to hear from you.
In spite of the high volume of mail I receive daily, I look forward to reviewing your correspondence and providing a personal response as soon as possible.
As we continue our work in the 111th Congress, I look forward to supporting our troops in the War on Terror, repairing our economy and creating jobs, strengthening Social Security, lowering the tax burden on American families, and making the federal government more accountable and efficient.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if I may be of further assistance to you or your family, and if you need immediate assistance, please call my office at 202-224-5972. If your correspondence pertains to a scheduling request, please fax your request to (202) 224-3808.
Sincerely,
Lindsey Graham
Granted, it had the same sentiment as all those snail mail communiques, but at least he wasn't wasting my tax dollars on postage.
So I sent a reply.
Which was promptly returned by the evil Mailer Daemon.
I like this back and forth that I am pretending to have these days with Senator Graham, so I decided to just send it to him through my blog:
Dear Senator Graham:
I am glad you are responding by email these days, and saving us a few pennies. I do need to say, though, that I am feeling cynical about your stated goals. In actual fact, your tax cuts have resulted in me paying an additional $5 of my $175 weekly income, while social security continues to be raided so that my benefits (and those of my children) are being threatened. I also wonder how invading a woman's privacy and condoning murder of abortion doctors creates jobs (not your fault, that honor goes to Mr. Boehner). I have yet to understand how slashing the programs we need is going to make the federal government more accountable and efficient -- it sure hasn't worked here in South Carolina. And finally, the only war on terror ("War on Terror") y'all seem to be conducting is the one where you terrorize the middle and lower class citizens of this country.
I'll just continue to be cynical, and hope you prove me wrong.
By the way, when I went to the mailbox later in the day, there were two letters from Senator Graham, which I never opened. So apparently they haven't got that government accountability and efficiency thing down yet.
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