Letter to The Select Committee on Ethics

The Select Committee on Ethics
220 Hart Building
United States Senate
Washington DC 20510
T: 202.224.2981
F: 202.224.7416

Senator Barbara Boxer, D-California, Chairman
Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, Vice Chairman
Senator Mark Pryor, D-Arkansas
Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kansas
Senator Ken Salazar, D-Colorado

Dear Senators

"Last November (2006), the American people spoke clearly for change in the way business is done in Washington. They demanded not just high ethical standards, but also transparency, disclosure, and accountability to make these standards effective." - Nancy Pelosi

Paralleling the words of Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) from a recent e-mail; For six months, many Democratic senators have used their majority to bully anyone who questions the world as they see it. They squelch dissent, attack critics, and have exercised no oversight. And they're getting away with it because they control the House and the Senate.

I respectfully request the immediate investigation of Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Speaker Pelosi, a Democratic Representative of the State of California, already found guilty of wrongdoing in 2003 for campaign finance fraud for which she paid a menial fine, has raised serious ethical concerns for her role in the Presidio Partners, Hunters Point Redevelopment, and many other real estate dealings in which she, or her immediate family, have been involved. Speaker Pelosi's role with InfoUSA, via the employment of her son, Paul, is also suspect and also raises serious ethical concerns as a conflict of interest due to her son's ability to specifically review voter rolls via his employment with InfoUSA.

I also respectfully request the immediate investigation of California Senator Dianne Feinstein. Senator Feinstein has raised serious ethical questions in the confirmed and verified reporting of her passing millions of dollars in military contracts to her husband while she was on the Senate Subcommittee on Military Construction Appropriations.

As a taxpaying United States citizen and in keeping with Speaker Pelosi's fervent dictum quoted above, I demand not just high ethical standards, but also transparency, disclosure, and accountability to make these standards effective. And, as both Speaker Pelosi and Senator Feinstein have given the appearance of wrongdoing, I demand they be held accountable to the voting public for their questionable actions.

Thank you.

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In my desire to send an e-mail to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, I discovered that is an impossiblity. In viewing the Chairman's website (Barbara Boxer, D-CA), she clearly states she will accept only e-mails from residents of the State of California, and only through an e-mail form the Senator supplies you requiring lots of personal information. In looking further through the members of the Committee's webpages, they all use the "form", too. As does most of our government. Above, each Senator's name is clickable to their respective e-mail "forms" if you would like to join me in this letter-writing campaign. Please feel free to copy and paste the above letter if you haven't already composed one yourself.

Speaking with the very pleasant woman that answered the phone (number above), I asked if the Committee would consider having a centralized e-mail specifically for issues being addressed by the public to the Committee. She was chuckling when she replied, "That won't happen". The only way to reach The Senate Select Committee on Ethics is via the USPS or fax.

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Stuffing the Mailbox of Congress

Many experts thought e-mail would revolutionize citizen contact with Congress, particularly in the post-Sept. 11 world. But e-mail backfired, according to the Congress Online Project. Lawmakers who posted public e-mail addresses in late 2001 were deluged with e-mail, much of it spam, and overwhelmed aides actually took longer to answer e-mails than traditional letters, the project found. Within months, many lawmakers had shut down direct e-mail contact and now direct constituents to electronic forms on their congressional Web pages.

So what is the best way to make sure your congressman hears you?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a California-based public interest network, says the absolute worst way is to send the kind of form e-mails that many groups offer on their Web sites.

Besides visiting your congressman personally, the most effective way to get a congressman's attention is with an old-fashioned letter, the foundation says. It should be handwritten but legible. And, the group recommends, short. Lawmakers have a lot of other letters to open.