Our own PA 11th district Congressman Paul Kanjorski has been in the news this week for some colorful remarks. After getting feedback from a few town meetings he felt that people have lost trust in the government and he said “I’m in fear for the survival of the republic,” he said. “People want to get their deer rifles out and go to the barricades.” Then he offered a technical government speak solution to ward off the revolution. Sorry Paul, hyperbole is not your strong point.
But he didn't stop there and and offered some criticism of the appropriations process when responding to an emergency. There is a rule that Congress won't OK more than $100 million in immediate disaster relief to a state for any one incident. They can always approve more money later if it's warranted. The collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis is the type event that the $100 million rule applies. The rule was ignored in this case when Minnesota asked for more ($250 million) and Kanjorski objected even though he voted for it, go figure. Nobody has ever accused him of being a fiscal conservative and his reaction would be funny if someone bitched about a piece of his pork.
"They discovered they were going to get all the money from the federal government and they were taking all they could get,” he said. In essence they took the opportunity “to screw us,” he said of the funding grab.
This quote got all kinds of attention. Think Progress picked up on it then spread it all over the place.
Kanjorski comments on bridge collapse spark fierce backlash
This is an interesting story because it cherry picks the comments from Think Progress but doesn't but doesn't cite the source. I'm sure the reporter sourced his story but it was edited out. What is it with the local rags unwillingness to give credit to the blogosphere? And as far as the rumors that he may hang it up his mouthpiece, Ed Mitchell, said he has no plans to retire. Kanjo himself hasn't been able to be reached because he is off on his annual trek to New Mexico. I hope he is as lucky as was on his last trip when he won 20 grand playing blackjack.
While sitting in the cafeteria at work the other day reading somebody's left-behind newspaper, I was amused to see an account of Kanjorski's controversial comments just a few pages from an editorial by Minnesota native Garrison Keillor, which made essentially the same point about political greed kicking in in a time of tragedy.
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"The way to get money to fix a bridge is for it to collapse and kill people, and so Congress promptly awarded Minnesota $250 million for the fallen I-35W. The usual suspects held press conferences to express shock and concern, pledge support, etc. The governor called for a time of healing and he proclaimed confidence in his commissioner of transportation, a large ebullient woman in a bright red blouse. There were prayer services. The Current Occupant came to view the wreckage and to express, in that intense and aimless way of his, his hopes for a better life for us. And then, having raised our hopes, he did not resign from office after all..."
"...Unless the bridges get blown up by helpful terrorists, making us eligible for Halliburton to come in and rebuild them, I don't imagine that much will happen. There will be an investigation and someday, when we are much older, we will learn that the bridge collapsed due to a unique set of circumstances that could not have been predicted by anybody. Nobody had sex with that woman. Everybody was doing a heckuva job."