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Whodunnit? GOPer Quizzes Staff on Coconut Road Change
House Transportation Committee ranking member Rep. John Mica (R-FL) said no one who works for him was involved in the infamous change to Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) Coconut Road earmark in the highway bill of 2005. Young chaired the committee back then, so the main culprit for the change (made after the bill passed both houses of Congress) has been one of his staffers.
The Hill reports that Mica queried his staff and believes that if a Republican Transportation staff member was involved, he/she no longer works for the committee:
[Mica] also said he was so concerned about how the earmark was inserted that he asked his entire Transportation Committee staff whether any of them had anything to do it.“If they had, I would have fired them,” Mica remarked, noting that none were involved.
Many of the aides had remained on the committee after Young stepped down as chairman when Democrats assumed the majority in January.
Mica also sent a letter to Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) yesterday, whose district has fought locally over what to do with Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) $10 million earmark, asking Mica to help get the money reallocated for the broader, interstate widening project, rather than the narrow, locally unpopular proposal.
Mica's letter to Mack is posted here.
Josh
Zachary
Did anyone ask Mica if he did it?
October 4, 2007 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let me see. If I did it and I confess, I'm going to lose my job. OK. I am an honorable person who illegally changed a document. Hmmm. I am going to step up to the plate. Hmmm. Or not.
October 4, 2007 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Put these coordinates into Google Earth and check out where the interchange was going to be located.
26°23'46.32"N 81°46'45.29"W
October 4, 2007 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
isn't Dirty Gary Miller on that committee?
October 4, 2007 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
So when does he plan on asking the former staffers? If it's worth his time to ask all the current staffers, surely he doesn't believe that quitting should get them off the hook, right?
(Yeah, right. I'm sure he'll get right on that.)
October 4, 2007 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Come on, people: this is a simple riddle to solve.
Like the corruption in the White House during the Clinton administration, Bill Clinton is clearly responsible for this reprehensible act. Representative Mica said as much during House hearings today with regards to the issue of corruption in the Iraqi government…
October 4, 2007 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you Laura for tracking the staff angle.
Did Rep. Mica put the staffers under oath first? No, presumably not. He would have to do that during a committee hearing.
Committee hearing, hmm.
Shouldn't the House Transportation Committee itself be investigating this arrogation of its legislative authority?
October 4, 2007 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't Don Young's spokeswoman, Meridith Kinny, just acknowledge in The Hill that Don Young ordered the post-passage change? At first she doesn't comment, then she appears to confirm the change being done at Young's direction:
"Young’s spokeswoman, Meredith Kinny, would not comment on whether Young or his staffers requested the Coconut Road Interchange change to the earmark language.
She did say that “when that language was first inserted in the bill,” Young was responding to a need expressed by Florida Gulf Coast University and “area residents” for a “hurricane evacuation route.”"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the language "first inserted" after passage? And isn't Kinny confirming that Don Young ordered the change?
October 4, 2007 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
So who did Young order to make the change? He wasn't maintaining the text for the bill on his home computer. Some humble peon was taken for a ride or corrupted. Given the stakes this person needs to be found and steps taken to prevent future such shenanigans.
Oughtn't it be simple to keep dual computer copies of these bills and provide each Congressional office with a copy which automatically flags any changes in a bill from the prior copy?
October 4, 2007 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quoting Jane:
Oughtn't it be simple to keep dual computer copies of these bills and provide each Congressional office with a copy which automatically flags any changes in a bill from the prior copy?
No offense, but you're kidding, right? Same people that "lose" millions of Whitehouse e-mails ... and you want not one but several copies of all important paperwork to stay intact; accountable; apparently time-stamped; etc. We wish!
October 5, 2007 3:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
MICA checked up on this? well he is the check into it kinda guy, just look at his record of holding BUSH people accountable under the law, YEP it is a record to be proud of and just as long as no one actually checks up on his record he will of course find that no one absolutly no one questions HIS record on matters of corruption, just read all his press statements on DELAY, CUNNINGHAM,REED (Red Foreever Ralph), LEWIS(jerry- not the funny one either), WILSON (Heather),and oh so many others.
I can hear his daily tirade against corrupt members of congress and IF YOUR LUCKY you can hear him demanding the investigations be FAST TRACKED.
We should all thank MICA for cleaning up government these past few years giving us the most lawfull administration ever and a congress so squeeky clean that it is the wonder of the ages, ALL HAIL THE MICA. the mighty mighty windy MICA.
October 5, 2007 7:32 AM | Reply | Permalink