Last night, Jim Moran held a “Securing Your Social Network” event with officials from Facebook at West Potomac High School in Alexandria. You probably received a mailer, which was published at taxpayer expense, advertising the event. There’s nothing wrong with that; that’s a legitimate use of the congressional franking privilege, unlike the campaign mailer he sent in August that cost $175,000.

However, Moran didn’t even feel the need to stay at his own event that he spent thousands in taxpayer dollars advertising. He gave a brief introductory speech that lasted about five minutes. He welcomed the Facebook officials and said he was going to “kick back” and watch the presentation. Then he slowly made his way up the stairs of the auditorium, shaking hands on the way out, and left the room. And then he left the school, got in his car, and drove away.

If Moran didn’t find the event compelling enough to stay longer than five minutes, why did he spend our tax dollars advertising it?

(Note: The franked mail reports for the first quarter of 2011 are due on the 14th. When the reports are released we’ll see just how much Moran wasted on the mailers.)