Posted on 09/12/2009 8:03:09 PM PDT by Steelfish
Rep. Loretta Sanchez Among Lawmakers In Spotlight For Taxpayer-Funded Trips
The Garden Grove congresswoman has made 20 overseas excursions since 2006, touching down on every continent. Critics say more transparency is needed on government-sponsored travel.
By Richard Simon September 13, 2009
Reporting from Washington - At a time when congressional travel is coming under new scrutiny, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) has the distinction of taking more trips at taxpayer expense than anyone else in the California delegation.
In the last 3 1/2 years, she visited the South Pole, snorkeled at Australia's Great Barrier Reef and joined world leaders at a security conference in Munich, Germany. She met with Darfur refugees in Sudan, attended a "legislators' dialogue" with European Parliament members in Slovenia, delivered a speech on transportation security in France and inspected anti-terrorism defenses in Genoa, Italy, and Mombasa, Kenya.
All told, she has made 20 overseas trips since the start of 2006, touching down on every continent. Last year, she went abroad seven times. Many times she used military flights, but one commercial flight from Australia to Britain cost $8,383.
Sanchez, a congresswoman since 1997, said the travel was important to her work as the ranking female lawmaker on the House Armed Services Committee and as vice chairwoman of the Homeland Security Committee.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Wow, go LAT with the “D” in the first sentence (of the body) of the article.
I can’t believe that this ditz is still being sent back to Washington every two years. (Or maybe I can. She’s a ‘RAT).
“...said the travel was important to her work as the ranking female lawmaker...”
WHAT?
Bring back B-1 Bob! He’s tanned, rested and ready!
I’m awfully curious what she did in Antarctica.
I think I know
Better be careful...that tattered Race Card is about to be played...
This makes me sick.
Snippets: The renowned Latino rights activist (Nativo Lopez), in trouble for voter fraud in the past, cast an illegal ballot in the 2008 presidential primary and used a false address to register in another county, according to the California Secretary of State Election Fraud Investigation Unit.
The Los Angeles County prosecutor’s office has charged the longtime immigration advocate with fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent document filing, perjury and fraudulent voting. In 1996 Lopez was investigated for registering new voters before their citizenship was finalized to help a popular Mexican American Democrat (Loretta Sanchez) get elected to the U.S. House.
a climate-change fact-finding trip by Representative Ross, his wife and a few other members of Congress, aides and spouses. There was snorkeling on the Great Barrier reef. New Year's eve fireworks in New Zealand. An incredibly expensive side trip to Antarctica. A cable car ride through the Australian rain forest. Travel by luxury Air Force jet. A little decompression after their hard fact-finding at the Royal Hawaiian hotel in Honolulu.
Officials in Latin America are expected to enrich themselves at public expense. Why else would someone seek power, if not to use it for their own benefit?
That is how it is regarded. They would be puzzled if people were to criticize.
Now for the fun. Loretta - a woman who makes no secret of her loyalty to Mexico and Mexicans - is on House military committees and has access to classified information.
And she's from a culture that has no problem with using things provided by the government for her own wealth.
Scared yet?
Loretta Brixey originally ran against Bob Dornan in the Republican Congressional Primary. She lost to Dornan. She then started to use her maiden name ‘Sanchez’ and she won the Dem primary. She then won the seat partly because she is an Hispanic. Her sister, Linda Sanchez, ran under her maiden name and won a seat also. The sad part of the Dem Party is that a minority will always win, qualified or not.
It was the only time that I saw a politician CHANGE their name just before an election, usually their name recognition is all important.
In this case the new name wasn't recognizable but it did sound Hispanic, and away we go.
Sad the voting public goes on identity more than intelligence or ideology isn’t it? The dumbing down of America is having a devastating effect on our country.
How did she get past Homeland Security? She changes her name when she runs to whatever current race applies.
Sanchez's chief of staff, Adrienne K. Elrod, said the congresswoman went snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef with scientists to see the effects of global warming.
I mean ... doesn't it?
Sanchez said the trip convinced her "that the security threat posed by global warming is real, massive and fast approaching."
A la John Francois Kerry's pronouncement on the eve of Sept. 11.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.