Media is getting wind of Passport problems
 

I've posted a few times on here about our luck in having a good Congresswoman who had the passports for my daughter, son and two grandsons expidated and delivered just prior to our April trip (after no word in three months).

Well, our newspaper called my daugher today to ask if they could interview her for an article about the "Passport backlog" going on. Seems they'd gotten her name from the Congresswoman's office.

I know this isn't the point of your comment but I'm absolutely blown away that your Congresswoman's office is allowed to give a newspaper the private information of someone who called for assistance!

Perhaps there is more to the story.
Got to be. Revealing a constituents confidential information could be the source of fuel for a major re-election fire.

If I thought my congressman had done that, I would be annoyed to the limit.

I'm hoping there's more to it.

If the Rep. was smart, she or her staff would have asked the family -- either at the time or later -- if she could provide their name to the press. If she didn't that's sleazy.

You'd like to think the office wouldn't have said any more info than "I helped this family during the passport crunch." That's isn't all that much personal info, but nonetheless, had the Rep. not checked first, I would have been irked.

As for the title of the post, it's not like the media is just "getting wind" of the problem. It's been out there for months in the media I read, including Washington Post and NY Times.

Actually I would be so grateful to the Congresswoman who took an interest in my plight...I wouldn't give the other issue a second thought.

I stand corrected. It was the congresswoman's office who called my daughter and asked if it would be okay for the reporter to call for an interview, so the paper will be calling tomorrow. (The paper called the rep, by the way, the rep did not seek out the paper.)

Solution: No congressional trips until the passport mess is cleared up.

Interestingly, on a TV show tonight a political apologist for privatization of government functions asserted that privatization had fixed the problems with getting a passport. I held my sides laughing until I realized it was not a sarcastic remark!

Taking small issue with the thread title (although not with its point), specifically "getting wind." Getting?

Back around Thanksgiving time, you couldn't swing a cat without the risk of it getting dozens of nasty cracks about the head from bumping into story after story after story - on TV, in the paper, online - urging and cajoling folks to get their passports before the rush.

They're not getting wind of it - they predicted it.