Fair and Balanced
Fair and balanced June 11th, 2010 (5) comments Marty Trillhaase ... SlideshowThis article has a slideshow. Click to view. Image #2 JEERS ... to Idaho Freedom Foundation Executive Director Wayne Hoffman. He is responsible for the IdahoReporter.com, which is self-described as "a free news service that provides comprehensive, factual, non-opinionated and non-ideological coverage of state government." Well, not quite. This week IdahoReporter.com's Dustin Hurst put out the word that U.S. Congressman Walt Minnick, D- Idaho, was spending a lot of taxpayer money promoting himself to his constituents through the congressional "franking" privilege. In essence, it's direct mail advertising for incumbents. Minnick, a Democrat in a Republican congressional district, spent more than $150,000 during his first year in office. In contrast, U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, spent $18,000. Then IdahoReporter.com dug back 14 years and located a quote from Minnick - when he challenged U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho - bashing the franking practice. "It is a perfect example of how professional politicians use a system of perks to stay in office and rip off the taxpayer at the same time, ... " Minnick said. IdahoReporter.com says Craig "averaged about $44,500 a year during his first four years in the Senate, while Minnick averaged roughly $30,000 a quarter in his first 15 months in office." Not only is Minnick supposedly a profligate, he's accused of hypocrisy too. Except for one thing: What this "a free news service that provides comprehensive, factual, non-opinionated and non-ideological coverage of state government" failed to mention was that Minnick hasn't come close to spending the wads of cash his Republican predecessor, Bill Sali, burned through by sending out his junk mail to voters.
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