Days after the 35W bridge collapsed, the U.S. Congress voted emergency funds to help pay for repair. (Bachmann one of the GOP Representatives who voted along partisan lines to go home for the weekend without voting on the funds, but the Democrats overruled and made her stay and vote the funds to Minnesota.
Fifty-five million dollars in funds have already been released. The rest of the funds will be released when Congress and the White House finish their budget battle.
Bridge funding doesn’t actually depend on what Congress does next, because Congress has already voted the money for the repair and President Bush has already assured Minnesota state officials that they will receive the funds with or without Congressional action.
But Bachmann and two Minnesota Republicans figure that since the President is sitting on the funds anyway and is bound to send the money along before the GOP convention in Minnesota next year--why not stage a bit of political theater for own benefit; why not introduce a meaningless bill into Congress to demand funds from the Dem majority Congress—not the GOP President, who claims he can send the money any time he wants?
Silly, but it enables them to pretend that 1) the Dem majority is holding up the money, 2) when Bush finally sends the money the Congress approved, these representatives can pretend they had something to do with it, and 3) it gets their names in the papers at a time when they look pretty lackluster and irrelevant (even with members of their own base.) Pretending that Bush hasn’t already announced that he can release the bridge emergency funds *without* Congressional approval—is good, cheap political theater; cheaper than running another attack ad.
A little sleazy to waste more of the Congress’ time on this and try to deceive the voters about who’s holding up the money—but the alternative is to write a bill directing *a GOP president* to send the rest of the bridge money and send it straight away. I think plenty of Democrats would join Bachmann and her GOP colleagues in signing *that* bill. But she ain’t gonna do that! She just *loooooves* Bush; she wouldn’t embarrass him for millions. (Not even the state’s millions.)
(Here is the report by Star Tribune Washington correspondent Kevin Diaz, who just *looooves* Michele Bachmann.) |
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