I grew up in Wisconsin. I knew a lot of cranky old dudes when I grew up there. Most of them don't get anywhere near Congress. Unfortunately, David Obey did. Obey's in the picture, standing next to Pelosi and John Murtha. He's the one with the thickest beard.
Obey has been in Congress for a very long time. He first got elected to Congress 40 years ago and has been representing the 7th District ever since. If you hang around Congress long enough, it typically doesn't matter if you understand much of anything or not -- eventually you become a powerful person. That's what has happened to Obey. Because he's an old lion and the Democrats are in control, Obey is now chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. That means he has a lot of say over what gets appropriated. In other words, he's the guy who essentially crafted the House version of the crap sandwich a/k/a the stimulus bill.
Ordinarily a cranky old dude from Wausau will show a little bit of restraint. But since Obey has had a sinecure for all these years, restraint is not one of his strong points. It shows in the monstrous bill he has crafted. And since he has a sinecure, he doesn't much care what anyone else thinks. In fact, he's not afraid to tell you that.
So what? The dude bids fair to spend a trillion dollars and doesn't care if anyone is accountable for how it's spent? So what? It's not Obey's fault. It's whoever spends the money badly. Not him. Not ever. Maybe Congressman Obey would like to give me his credit card. Why shouldn't he? He's giving anyone who shows up at the trough my children's credit card. So what?
David Obey has been spending our money without compunction for 40 years now. I have several friends who grew up in the Wausau area. They are all very sensible people. Any of them would be a hell of a lot less cavalier about spending a trillion dollars than Congressman Obey. Any random person in the Wausau phone book would be.
There was a time, not that long ago, that public service was considered a public trust and our representatives were concerned about being stewards of public resources. I miss those days.
(H/T: Allah)
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