News
Apr 21 2008
Brent Batten: Taking off (on) a pair of rants
Since we’re asking questions about the $10 million earmark to study an Interstate 75 interchange at Coconut Road, here’s one.
Why did it take a U.S. senator from Oklahoma and another from California to push for an investigation to get to the bottom of this?
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have been driving what is shaping up to be a U.S. Justice Department probe into how language was changed in 2005 to route $10 million in I-75 improvement funds to the interchange study.
An interchange at Coconut Road would benefit a campaign contributor to a powerful congressman and, while a case can be made that the interchange has merit, no local transportation officials had asked for the money.
Southwest Florida has two U.S. representatives and the state has two senators. All of them have been aware of the questionable earmark for two years or more. But none of this state’s congressional contingent saw fit to call for an investigation. Why?
Perhaps because they didn’t want to upset the D.C. apple cart. Republican Don Young, the Alaska congressman at the receiving end of campaign contributions from landowner Daniel Aronoff, is most mentioned as a likely provocateur behind the earmark. With 25 years in Congress, Young is a powerful force, especially so before the Democrats won a majority of seats in the House in 2006.
It wouldn’t be politic for two relatively junior members of the institution to go putting the FBI on scent that could lead to an elder statesman.
Maybe U.S. Reps. Connie Mack and Mario Diaz-Balart thought they were acting in the best interest of Southwest Florida by not aggravating Young.
Maybe that’s just how the game is played in Washington.
But the game has gone on too long.
It would be bad enough if I-75’s widening had been fully funded and the $10 million had been a lagniappe thrown in. But it was worse. We now know the $10 million was to be part of the overall, much-needed, project but was diverted to the one of more dubious merit.
Term limits for Congress would prevent people like Young from accumulating such power as to intimidate junior members from closely scrutinizing deals they know to be suspect.
Mack spokesman Jeff Cohen said the congressman supports investigation of the Coconut Road earmark. Prior to the senators’ action, Mack felt the House Ethics Committee, of which Mack is not a member, was the proper venue for scrutiny, Cohen said. He conceded that Mack did not formally ask any of his colleagues who were on the ethics committee to look into the matter.
Term limits would empower the likes of Mack and Diaz-Balart to ask hard questions without concern for their long-term future in the House. They wouldn’t have one, regardless.
Six years, eight years, 12 years, whatever. The institution of the career congressman has got to end.
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E-mail Brent Batten at bebatten@naplesnews.com
Why did it take a U.S. senator from Oklahoma and another from California to push for an investigation to get to the bottom of this?
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have been driving what is shaping up to be a U.S. Justice Department probe into how language was changed in 2005 to route $10 million in I-75 improvement funds to the interchange study.
An interchange at Coconut Road would benefit a campaign contributor to a powerful congressman and, while a case can be made that the interchange has merit, no local transportation officials had asked for the money.
Southwest Florida has two U.S. representatives and the state has two senators. All of them have been aware of the questionable earmark for two years or more. But none of this state’s congressional contingent saw fit to call for an investigation. Why?
Perhaps because they didn’t want to upset the D.C. apple cart. Republican Don Young, the Alaska congressman at the receiving end of campaign contributions from landowner Daniel Aronoff, is most mentioned as a likely provocateur behind the earmark. With 25 years in Congress, Young is a powerful force, especially so before the Democrats won a majority of seats in the House in 2006.
It wouldn’t be politic for two relatively junior members of the institution to go putting the FBI on scent that could lead to an elder statesman.
Maybe U.S. Reps. Connie Mack and Mario Diaz-Balart thought they were acting in the best interest of Southwest Florida by not aggravating Young.
Maybe that’s just how the game is played in Washington.
But the game has gone on too long.
It would be bad enough if I-75’s widening had been fully funded and the $10 million had been a lagniappe thrown in. But it was worse. We now know the $10 million was to be part of the overall, much-needed, project but was diverted to the one of more dubious merit.
Term limits for Congress would prevent people like Young from accumulating such power as to intimidate junior members from closely scrutinizing deals they know to be suspect.
Mack spokesman Jeff Cohen said the congressman supports investigation of the Coconut Road earmark. Prior to the senators’ action, Mack felt the House Ethics Committee, of which Mack is not a member, was the proper venue for scrutiny, Cohen said. He conceded that Mack did not formally ask any of his colleagues who were on the ethics committee to look into the matter.
Term limits would empower the likes of Mack and Diaz-Balart to ask hard questions without concern for their long-term future in the House. They wouldn’t have one, regardless.
Six years, eight years, 12 years, whatever. The institution of the career congressman has got to end.
---
E-mail Brent Batten at bebatten@naplesnews.com
