Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! (A Rant)
According to President Bush in a speech in Des Moines, Iowa in 2003:
It makes no sense for people in the congressional disctrict ….[to] replace somebody on the Appropriations Committee with somebody who’s not. The Appropriations Committee is one of the most important committees there is in the United States Congress.
Apparently Andy McGuire, Democrat turned Republican, turned Democratic, turned Republican, turned Democrat, turned Republican…. turned Democratic Lt. Governor candidate…. didn’t feel that way when she donated money to Greg Ganske in 1994 to help him defeat 36 year incumbent democrat and very senior member said committee, Neal Smith.
That is real money in 1994, not the chump change IDP Humphrey Club membership it is now.
I guess Des Moines didn’t need the help since the Iowa Values Fund was on the way.
A monorail would have been cool though. Who knows? Maybe ethanol would be on a better track than it is now. The state universities would have sure as hell been a lot better off.
President Clinton sums it up best in 1994 campaigning for Smith:
Neal Smith led the fight in the Congress to approve the promotion of ethanol. (Applause.) The vote was close. In the United States Senate, it came down to a tie vote; and Al Gore broke the tie in favor of ethanol. (Applause.) We did it to make ourselves more independent of foreign oil. We did it to promote the cleanness of our environment. We did it to create new jobs for farm families. But if it had not been for Neal Smith — I want you to think about this Tuesday — if it had not been for Neal Smith, we would not have been able to do it. And he ought to be sent back to Congress to keep fighting for you.
4 comments March 25th, 2006
