Saw something today about the GOP's plans to dump tons of money into the Santorum race and thought I'd go take a look at opensecrets.org's records to see who is contributing to Santorum. I thought it might be interesting to check on who his out of state donors are. I thought it might be interesting to see if there were contributions bundled from various individuals on the same day all employed by a certain employer (ala Virgil Goode and Katherine Harris and MZM). I wondered how many of trial lawyer hating physicians who had contributed to Santorum would find it interesting to receive info in the mail about Santorum's wife's malpractice claim against her health provider (hey - Howie Kurtz says this sort of thing is relevant). I wondered why two physicians listed their addresses as Anonymous, AK 99999 when a few seconds on Google indicated they both live in Philadelphia and whether it is legal to put a false address on an FEC form.
But, unfortunately, before I could pursue any of that, I got distracted by the plight of Mr. Elliot Baines of Vero Beach, Florida.
Why was a retired Floridian so interested in Mr. Santorum's campaign that he would contribute $4400 in dribs and drabs every few months of this election cycle to Rick Santorum?
Turns out Google had a lot to say about a Mr. Elliot Baines, a Florida retiree, and how he's been milked by GOP direct mail solicitations.
Fund-raising group milks vulnerable senior citizens
Copyright 2004, The Seattle Times Co.
By David Postman and Jim Brunner
Seattle Times staff reporters
...excerpt..
"Elliot Baines is an 84-year-old Florida retiree who says he has a hard time just carrying the mail he gets each day now. "It's almost too much for me to handle," he said. Baines was surprised to hear he had given more than $63,000 and that it had all gone to College Republicans. He said he was swayed to give, sometimes against his better instincts, by the power of the letters. "I thought if I paid them off once it would send them away, but it just encourages them to send more," he said. "It is just a rat race in this house to pay off these people and hope that they quit.
"But they don't. They keep sending."
Has Santorum bought the mailing list? Is it the same Mr. Baines? If it is, I find this to be nothing more than elder abuse. In which case I have a few questions for Mr. Santorum:
How is taking money from this man "Honoring thy father and mother?"
Which family value allows you to exploit the vulnerable elderly?
Sir, have you no morals at all?
Actually, no need to answer. Your actions speak louder than words.