John Kline abuses his franking privilege

Submitted by The Big E on June 29, 2008 - 8:43am.

A little while back, TwoPuttTommy discussed John Kline abusing his franking privileges. TwoPutt isn't the only one who has noticed:

Congressman John Kline is hitting the franking privilege awfully hard lately. In just the past month or so, I've received six mailings from his office -- all of them gratuitously political.

These political puff pieces were "prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense." So says the obligatory disclosure that appears on this franked (postage-free) mail.

Does anyone besides me think it is wrong to bill the taxpayer for political self-promotion?
(Rochester Post Bulletin, letter to the editor by Chris Kimball)

Kline tries to position himself as a champion for eliminating waste in government. But here he is protecting his precious campaign war chest by having taxpayers fund his early campaign lit. Realistically, he's going to have a hard time this year. The National Republican Congressional Committee is hurting. They trail the DCCC by a factor of five! With all the higher priority races in MN let alone across the country, Kline will get little to no help from the NRCC.

With MN-02 trending blue, Preznit Shrubbery's popularity at 23%, Kline's 100% support for the invasion & occupation of Iraq and the Republican brand in serious trouble, John Kline is going to have a really tough time against Steve Sarvi. Steve is a Kosovo and Iraq vet. He's the former mayor of Watertown. He's been a city administrator for 3 small southern MN towns.

Furthermore, if Kline were such a champion for eliminating waste in government, what about the billions we've been wasting in Iraq? Kline seems to have no qualms about doling out no-bid contracts.

Chris Kimball wasn't quite done, yet:

Congressman Kline can't be working very hard at fighting government waste, as he claims, when he is contributing to it so mightily by funding his re-election campaign with taxpayer dollars. He should come clean, give us a clear accounting of what these mailings really cost and repay the amount to the U.S. Treasury.