Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Murtha's Magical Money Pot

Have you ever heard of the Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure??

Neither have I. And neither had Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, but it's getting a million dollars.

Here's the story from the Politico:

Republican Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, the fiscal crusader who's never met an earmark he likes, questioned Democratic Rep. Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana on the House floor Tuesday about whether the Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure actually exists - since, hey, it's getting like a million bucks or something.

Visclosky, who chairs the spending subcommittee responsible for the project, had to admit that, well, he didn't have a clue.

After a lengthy back-and-forth, Flake, complaining that his staff couldn't find a website for the center, asked Visclosky, "Does the center currently exist?"

"At this time, I do not know," the Indiana Democrat replied. "But if it does not exist, the monies could not go to it." And who could possibly be the sponsor of such an earmark? Yes, you guessed it, the man Republicans love to hate, Pennsylvania Democrat John P. Murtha.

Despite the money's uncertain destination, the House rejected Flake's measure to strike the funds, 326-98. And the Visclosky bill also sailed through, 312-112.

Someone should investigate Murtha on this. It deals with money going to some nebulous place. Kind of like Abscam. Is he padding his retirement fund with this bogus Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure? We really need to ask some more questions on this.......oh wait! The investigations are all directed at Republicans now...no time to clean the Democratic messes!

And what should we call this appropriation?? Ah!!! Another 'success' of the current Democratic Congress?

Radiant

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