Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, says that Pa.'s Rick Santorum is one of the three most corrupt senators, along with his fellow Republicans Bill Frist (Tenn.) and Conrad Burns (Mont.).
They based their finding on the cyberschooling issue, his $500,000 mortgage from a supporter's private bank, and his legislative efforts on behalf of campaign contributors. We were the first to report on the mortgage and on many of the campaign donations in our story on Santorum for American Prospect last March.
They note:Sen. Santorum has introduced legislation on behalf of AccuWeather, Inc., a weather data provider located in State College, cast a crucial vote against legislation that would have allowed the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the tobacco industry, introduced legislation to halve the excise tax large brewers have to pay on beer, pushed to get Medicare reimbursement for Puerto Rico, and supported an earmark for construction of a fuel plant, all in apparent exchange for campaign contributions. Such conduct may violate federal prohibitions on bribery, honest services fraud and accepting illegal gratuities, in addition to Senate rules.
So much for the party of the 'values voters' -- that is, unless you want to argue that bribery is a 'value'.
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