Churchill Was Right...

....Democracy is the worst form of government except for every other form. Exhibit A is Senator Rick "Sanctimonious" Santorum of Pennsylvania, the Senate's best current example of the north end of a south-bound horse.

Sen. Sanctimonious, you may recall, is the guy who suggested that it wasn't surprising that the clergy sex-abuse scandal broke in liberal Massachusetts; apparently it all had something to do with the hedonistic lifestyle in the Bay State.

The senator is perfectly prepared to lecture the rest of us on how we should live our lives. And, like a lot of politicians who make bold to demonstrate their moral superiority, the truth doesn't match up with the carefully cultivated image. The American Prospect has published an expose of the senator's Good Neighbor Initiative, formed for the ostensible purpose of supporting faith-based and other organizations fighting poverty. It turns out that Sen. Sanctimonious believes in the adage that charity begins, if not at home, at least with one's friends. As the Prospect reports, only a little over 1/3 of contributions to the initiative has found its way to charitable recipients. The rest has gone to expenses, including payments for services rendered paid to a number of people like the treasurer of his leadership PAC (the Prospect has also exposed that organization, which is notable for how little it gives to the other candidates that it was ostensibly formed to support). The senator's finance director serves as executive director of the initiative to the tune of $50,000 in salaries, and a fund-raiser for Sanctimonious' political efforts collected more than $118,000 in "fund-raising fees." Doing well by doing good, as they say.

The senator is up for re-election this fall, so the people of the Keystone State have the chance to rescue their state's reputation. Let's hope they take it.

By the way, the American Prospect is a publication that deserves your support.