GOP zings Niki Tsongas
| Scott Brown fever rages unabated in Washington as the national GOP continues to try to whip up party fervor – and anti-Democrat sentiments – in the Bay State.
Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee put U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Lowell) in its crosshairs for accepting campaign cash from embattled New York Rep. Charles Rangel. The NRCC accused Tsongas of “sweep(ing) her party’s corruption problems under the rug” and “letting Rangel off the hook” while hauling in $7,000 from Rangel and his political action committee. A House ethics panel last week found Rangel violated rules by accepting corporate-funded Caribbean junkets. “She is just another Democrat who is more concerned with partisan loyalty than serving the people she’s supposed to represent,” said NRCC communications director Ken Spain. Tsongas said she received the donations in 2007, before she was a member of Congress, and now plans to donate the money to charity. “Because she strongly believes that members of Congress have to be held to the highest ethical standards, she is disappointed by Congressman Rangel’s actions,” Tsongas spokeswoman Katie Enos said. The NRCC and other GOP groups are ramping up their efforts in Massachusetts in the wake of Brown’s Cinderella win. Tsongas is facing Republican businessman Jon Golnik in November. |