http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/...er-Funded-Trips

Sounds like Cochran is using the ol' Thadpole on his secretary. Too bad it is costing us a fortune, not including the taxpayer funded Viagra....

Zitat

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Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) lives in the basement apartment in a house owned by his executive assistant, Kay Webber, which he has listed as his primary address on official forms. Now public records show Webber accompanied Cochran on dozens of taxpayer-funded trips overseas.

According to the Congressional Record, where trip details including cost are listed, Webber has traveled with Cochran at taxpayer expense to 42 countries across five continents since 2002.

For example, Cochran and Webber traveled eight times to France, five times to Italy, four times to Israel, and twice to Japan.

The full list of countries they traveled to includes: Italy, France, Brussels, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Hungary, Russia, Norway, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Austria, and Czech Republic in Europe; Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile in South America; Guatemala, and Mexico in North and Central America; Japan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Republic of the Philippines, and South Korea in Asia; Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Azerbaijan, Oman, and United Arab Emirates in the Middle East, to Morocco; and Egypt, Cape Verde, and South Africa in Africa.

Other documents show that in 2005 and 2007, the Wine Institute, a trade association that represents the California wine industry, paid for Cochran's and Webber's travel to Sonoma, California for what a disclosure form described as “a fact-finding program on issues of importance to the wine industry.” No other aides attended the trip.

The Congressional Record lists 33 trips that Cochran and Webber attended together. According to that record, the cost to the American taxpayer of Webber's travel was at least $155,000.

Cochran staffers attended many of the trips with him and Webber, as well. For example, Stewart Holmes, who works at the Senate Appropriations Committee for Cochran and formerly advised him on intelligence and national security issues in his personal senate office, attended 16 of those trips.

Senators routinely bring their spouses and aides on the taxpayer-funded trips, called congressional delegations or “CODELs” in Capitol Hill parlance. However, on many of the trips that Cochran and Webber went on, the other aides who traveled with their bosses had specialized expertise or worked primarily on foreign policy issues.

“It’s a little unusual,” said Bill Allison, the editorial director of the Sunlight Foundation, a government watchdog group.

“Generally speaking, when you look at these types of Congressional travel, they will—if they bring somebody—bring a person who knows the subject matter. They won’t bring the same person over and over again.”

For example, on a trip to China, senators might bring a human rights or currency expert; on a trip to the Middle East, a military or defense expert; Europe, an expert on the EU or politics and policies specific to that region. “It’s usually they’ll bring someone who knows more about the policy subject than they do.”

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