lickety jackblog

the other corrupt alaskan

you've probably realized that everyone representing the state of alaska is a dirty crook and filthy liar. this is of course patently true. you heard about the conviction of good ol' senator ted stevens who made a career of naming everything in alaska after himself. but do you know don young? well here is what he would look like if he had animal parts on his face.

he was the chair of the house transportation & infrastructure committee when i was a lowly hill staffer staffin' the committee for my boss. the biggest thing to go through the committee was the famous 2005 highway bill, or SAFETEA-LU, which included the oft-heralded 'bridge to nowhere', along with upwards of $40 million in delightful earmarks i had the pleasure of providing to the good people of indiana. you're welcome.

don's office was in a lovely corner of rayburn house office building, and featured an enormous grizzly bear skin stretched over his front desk. to his credit, he ran an efficient meeting. also: he's a crook, blah blah blah.

one of the perks of being the chair of the committee is: you get to be in charge of coming up with wacky acronyms that suit your fancy, or in this case, float your boat. the SAFETEA was simple enough "Safe, accountable, efficient, transportation equity act", and it was originally called SAFETEA. then ol' don decided to throw on the "LU" at the end ("a legacy for users"). why? because his effing wife's name is Lu.

but maybe you didn't hear about this?: in june, the Hill (a newspaper for staffers) uncovered a memo apparently written by Young's staff to new interns about protocol for life as an intern for Don, including dealing with ol' Lu.

feast your soul on it, and then consider this: it's probably this nutty in most offices. if was just as bats in mine.

Labels: congress

posted by the cold cowboy @ 6:12 PM