| Crybaby of the Week
“I’m going to put the Senate on Notice. If the
Senate decides to discriminate against our state, to take money only from
our state, I’ll resign from this body.” -
Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, responding to a measure that would have
taken some of the pork out of his trough. He also promised to be 'carried
out on a stretcher' if the didn't get his way.
At issue was 223 million dollars for a bridge - a drop
in the bucket of the 141 billion dollar highway bill. Still, it was a
symbolic gesture, one designed to show that congress really is serious
about following some kind of budget constraint.
The 223 mil worth of play money is being used to build
what, in the congressionally appropriate 'sense of humor', has been dubbed
at the 'bridge to nowhere'. As should be expected, the description is a
misnomer. This is a bridge to somewhere - the island village of
Ketchikan, population 50. Four and a half million each, in case you're
math impaired.
Stevens drew upon his large reserve of living history to
drive home his point. "I remember as a young man in California when
someone suggested that there ought to be a bridge over what we called the
Golden Gate going into the San Francisco Harbor. People said, 'You can't
do that. That is a bridge to nowhere!'"
And then he threatened to quit the senate.
Wow, that's enough to put the fear of God in me. Oh
please don't leave us Senator Stevens, this august body will be nothing
but an empty shell without you.
Yeah, that's what I would
have said, too. But the senate voted 82-15 to defeat the de-funding,
leading credence to the growing belief that they're all bums who should be
thrown out on their collective asses. |
