It's fast and efficient.'' Perhaps too fast and efficient. Lest some far-flung advocacy group believe its mass mailing was read, tallied, processed or absorbed in some fashion by the salaried aide at the receiving end, rest assured this isn't happening. In the besieged offices on Capitol Hill, constituent mail comes first, spam last. Speaker Hastert's office replies to none of its e-mail, in part because the volume would make it too difficult, said spokesman John Feehery. Sanders' office estimates that more than half its mail is spam from people outside Vermont.
Senators read little of it, relying instead on staff memos summarizing the letters.
There is no pattern to House members' reading habits. Fearful of ignoring a true constituent letter, offices are devising ways to root them out of the electronic pile. Leahy's office uses computer programs that can distinguish a Vermonter from an Alaskan. The amount of e-mail was increasing to the point where it was out of hand. We would print them out.