By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 9, 2006; A04

After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists,
Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has
continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the
same day of the week.

[Santorum is the Senator who has introduced a bill, twice, to make all weather
products issued by the National Weather Service fee based. Currently
information issued by the Weather Service is free to the public. His family are
shareholders in Accu-Weather, State College, Pennsylvania.]

Santorum, whose ties to Washington lobbyists have been criticized by his
Democratic challenger, suspended his biweekly encounters on Jan. 30. His
decision came as Democrats named him as their top target in November's Senate
races, and after the guilty plea of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff to charges of
conspiring to corrupt public officials.

But in the month since his announcement, Santorum has held two meetings attended
by the same core group of lobbyists, and has used the sessions to appeal for
campaign aid, according to participants. Both of those meetings were convened at
the same time as the previous meetings -- 8:30 a.m. -- on the same day of the
week -- Tuesday -- and they lasted for about as long as the earlier meetings --
one hour. ......

Well, then, close down the National Weather Service.

Lloyd

"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 07:52:40 -0500, "Vito" said:

Santorum is the Senator who has introduced a bill, twice, to make all
weather
products issued by the National Weather Service fee based. Currently
information issued by the Weather Service is free to the public.

How dare he try to interfere with my God-given right to belly up to the
public trough with the other little piggies.

"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 07:52:40 -0500, "Vito" said:

Santorum is the Senator who has introduced a bill, twice, to make all
weather
products issued by the National Weather Service fee based. Currently
information issued by the Weather Service is free to the public.

How dare he try to interfere with my God-given right to belly up to the
public trough with the other little piggies.


Wow. You really thought that one through. Explain to us how using a service
that you pay for is "bellying up to the public trough". That's correct. Your
tax dollars pay for the NWS. Mr Public Service is advocating suspending your
access to the service that you pay for, to sell said services to companies
that can then charge you for the information that you could normally get
"for free". The quotation marks are there for a reason, since you are
actually paying for the service now, what Senator Greedy is advocating that
you pay for the service twice, so that companies like accuweather can make a
buck. Maybe what you're REALLY objecting to is Santorum's ability to
say incredibly stupid things to a large audience. Jealous?



John Cairns