is what i do

Honorable George V. Voinovich
317 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Voinovich,

I know that you, unlike some of your colleagues on both sides of the aisle, deserve the “Honorable� before your name. I’ve followed your career, sometimes from a distance and other times closely, and I’ve seen you act, time and again, thoughtfully, effectively, courageously.

Senator Voinovich, your country needs those qualities more than it ever has. Your President is out of touch and out of control, his administration is riddled with incompetence at best, and probably corruption, and your party is trotting along meekly, failing utterly to hold its leaders to any reasonable standards of ethics, responsibility, or morality.

You and your colleagues have just authorized the government to spend $52 billion to help New Orleans. Sir, you must demand to know, and you must tell your constituents, how that money is going to be spent. So far, it seems that it is going to Blackwater Security, to Halliburton, and to Service Corporation International, all of them companies with close personal ties to the administration, all of them receiving their share of the booty with no bidding process and no oversight process in place. The administration, as far as I can tell (and I hope that you have certain knowledge that I am wrong), has placed no restrictions on what they are permitted to do; they have even been relieved of the basic obligation to pay prevailing wages to the workers they hire.

Senator Voinovich, how much of the billions we spend on recovering NOLA will reach the victims of the disaster there? How much will go to enrich the shareholders and managers of the companies being rewarded with fat contracts? I know that you understand the importance of getting accurate and honest answers to such questions. Please, sir, don’t abandon your responsibility to act on what you know to be right.

In desperate sadness, for the people of New Orleans and for the future of our nation, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Richard Blumberg