Bright and early this morning on MPR, I heard Cathy Wurzer talking with former MNCD8 Representative Jim Oberstar.
It goes without saying the guy became a slippery wonk over his five decades in DC.
But it was his closing line that stuck with me; it should go up there with Cy Thao’s classic “When you guys win, you get to keep your money. When we win, we take your money“, or Larry Pogemiller’s “It’s silly to think people can spend their money better than government can“.
Asked about the criticisms he’d taken as for being seen as a porkmonger, he replied (I’m paraphrasing as closely as I can; I’ll try to get the audio after work today):
To all of them, I say – don’t drive on Highway 17. Don’t drive on Highway 8. Don’t drive on Highway 61. Don’t drive on [this bridge], or [that bridge], or [some other bridge]. Don’t drive on any of the things you criticized. Follow your principles.
“Representative” Oberstar, by your imperial leave; I paid for them. So did taxpayers in Manhattan and Mississippi, in Oregon and Ohio. We paid for those roads, for your bike paths, the Great Lakes Marine Research Institute, the North Star Commuter Rail line, and all the millions upon millions of dollars of other spending you inveigled for your district.
You didn’t pay for it.
We did.
And I will drive on any f*****g highway I want, whether I agree with its rationale or not. I will ride on the bike paths I criticized you for. I will go to the ice cream social or whatever they do at the GLMRI, and drive over those bridges – maybe back and forth a few times, like a kid playing on an escalator. Come to think of it, if I can find any escalators built with your pork-barrelling, I’ll ride ’em until security tells me to stop.
Because I paid for them. Against my will, in some cases; more than I’d have paid, in others; with my muted assent in still others. And since I paid for them – and since you were my employee (or would have been, had I lived in the 8th CD), I will not only not ask your permission, I may even take pictures of myself doing it, and send them to you, just to gall you.
So go curl up at the Humphrey Institute, and go away.
By your imperial leave.
The tone here is a little uncivilized. The Strib would never approve. Bile and invective won’t feed a hungry child, Mitch – only your money will.
Chip Cravaack performed an act of great civic hygiene by removing this 55-gallon drum of duck vomit (wearing bike shorts) from Congress.
Oh, sorry, that was pretty vitriolic.
RightWing Hate Speech™ at it’s finest!
wbgleasonTweet™ in 3…2….1
Rep. Oberrated has no problem exploiting the freedoms that other Americans paid for in blood, without his approval.
Oh! The Vitriolic Rhetoric ™ here just keeps piling up. Poor Misunderstood Jim Oberstar is a faithful public servant who faithfully served the public for about 100 years at the public’s expense. Where is the respect? Where is the bipartisan spirit of Arne Carlson?
I need to go take my Xanax now.
Bikepath Jims’ answer reminds me of a conversation I had this past Thanksgiving with a relative who is a Democrat.
We were talking about the most recent extension of unemployment benefits. I was against the extension and started to give an explanation of my position. Half a sentence in, he told me that I had better not ever collect even one week of unemployment benefits due to my position. When I asked him if I could get all the money I have paid in towards unemployment insurance over the past thirty years back as my position on the extension precludes me from collecting even one week of unemployment benefits – he raised his voice and pointed at my chest proclaiming HYPOCRITE! HYPOCRITE! At this point I was only glad that he was only a relative by marriage and went to get another beer.
Why is it, every bitter, angry, liberal Democrat is always a person who’s never worked a seriously hard day in their lives? And has never worked in the private sector, suckling at the teet of government their entire lives?
That’s a pretty broad brush you’re painting with MyGIN.
But it’s a good question never the less.
Dog? John Wayne Gacy? Care to answer?
Seflores, that’s like my Aunt’s husband, a retired Mpls school teacher and die-hard DFLr. When I told him public funds shouldn’t be spent on $50,000 “art” drinking fountains, he called me an asshole and told me never to talk to him again. Ever. A perfect example of the party of children.
Geez, Kermit. I wonder what he would have done if you said, “The biggest scam out there is the extended paid vacations that teachers get, oka the sabbatical?”
He would have punched me.
You should invite me to the next big family reunion, Kerm. Laughs galore!
he called me an asshole and told me never to talk to him again. Ever.
Sounds like a heck of a deal!
tag closed
So Kermit…Just for yuks do you ever want to call your Unc by marriage and leave messages letting him know what Rush (or Sean or Glenn Beck or uh Mitch & ‘Captain’ Ed) said today? I mean a guy’s got to have some fun beyond commenting on a blog right? Or, given your response to BH429, are we talking poking a bear with a stick territory here?
I think JPA pretty much nailed it. It would be like trying to have a serious conversation with angryclown. I have better things to do with my time.
Although putting him and Swiftee in the same room would be the best entertainment I’ve had in years. Cracks me up just thinking about it.
…that’s like my Aunt’s husband, a retired Mpls school teacher and die-hard DFLr. When I told him public funds shouldn’t be spent on $50,000 “art” drinking fountains, he called me an asshole and told me never to talk to him again. Ever.
So there are at least two in your family with appalling manners then?
Just kidding Kerm! Actually, your little anecdote reeks of the same kind of contrived, labored bullshit as Mitch’s “Wherein I Lay the Smackdown on a Jerry Falwell-Hating Lady at the Coffeeshop” piece of inspired fiction from awhile ago. Not so much a record of what actually happened, but what you wish would happen.
Tim, kiss my butt. If I wanted to lie I would comment on a liberal blog. You pathetic little worm.
So it’s appalling manners to state that “$50,000 shouldn’t be spent on “art” drinking fountains”?
Oh, for the days of “bi-partisan” government in MN when Democrats ruled and Republicans shut up.
ecdote reeks of the same kind of contrived, labored bullshit as Mitch’s “
Er, yeah, genius. If I say it happened, then it happened. That it taxes your not-quite-literate pea-brain isn’t my problem.
If I say it happened, then it happened
Funny how we have that in common. When did a man’s word become “appalling manners”? I am trying very, very hard to be civil. Very hard.
“Appalling manners” were less commonplace in the time of gentlemen’s duels.
Oh, pardon me, violent rhetoric.
Not so much a record of what actually happened, but what you wish would happen.
I have every confidence that if the world ever turns out the way you’d like it to be, Tim, there will be a record of everything.
Mr. D;
Well said.
There was another group, like the liberats, that kept meticulous records of everything; the Nazis.
Actually, when he tried to discuss it rationally he said “I suppose you would like to plow the Mpls Sculpture Garden under too”.
As Boss observes, liberals are most inclined to rationality when they are contemplating interment. They love making the trains run on time.
Although putting him and Swiftee in the same room would be the best entertainment I’ve had in years.
I’ll bring the popcorn!
They love making the trains run on time.
And spout non-sequiturs.
Plow the sculpture garden under? Sign me up.