This wonderful anecdote comes from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
“Bill McIntyre, of Camp Hill, interpreted a message he received from Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna, as “you have nothing to complain about.”
When the 72-year-old retiree sent all 253 legislators a congratulatory e-mail on the one-month anniversary of their middle-of-the-night pay hike, he was stunned by Mellow’s reply.
Mellow lobbed back an e-mail that read: “Why don’t you get a life.”
“I didn’t think anyone on the Senate of Pennsylvania would reply as he did,” McIntyre said.
Speaking through a staffer, Mellow expressed regret for his response and cited his frustration in wading through a deluge of messages.
Tess Candori, Mellow’s spokeswoman, confirmed that McIntyre’s e-mail did come from Mellow.
“In the course of a 30-plus-year service in the Senate, Senator Mellow takes pride in the fact that he individually responds to hundreds of e-mails and letters he receives daily,” she said.
“He regrets the tone and words used in the e-mail,” Candori said. “His reply was grounded in the frustration of trying to respond to bulk and spam e-mails from outside his district that distract and divert attention from matters requiring prompt action by him or his staff.” “