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Watchdog Group May File Lawsuit over Coconut Road
If the House ethics committee doesn't investigate the Coconut Road earmark that someone slipped in to a 2005 highway bill at the behest of then-transportation chair Rep. Don Young (R-AK), then a watchdog group may file a lawsuit to get to the bottom of it.
The non-partisan Taxpayers for Common Sense called on the House ethics committee to review how $10 million listed for a highway widening project ended up making its way to a project benefiting a developer and major Young campaign contributor after both chambers voted on the bill. But despite the fact that the change seems a blatant violation of House rules, chances are the infamously inert ethics committee won't jump to action.
Watchdog group Public Citizen told The Hill that it would consider taking the matter before a judge if the ethics committee doesn't act.
The group once filed a similar lawsuit after the Senate clerk inserted a typo into a budget-reconciliation bill that cut $39 billion from health, education and other programs. Public Citizen lost before a U.S. District Court in D.C., which upheld the typo as law. The group is appealing the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Craig Holman of Public Citizen said the Coconut Road scandal might make for a better case because the edit appears deliberate.
“This is a very obvious change,” Holman said. “This is not a typo. This is actually dealing with $10 million for such an unpopular project that the Florida County doesn’t even want it.”
Comments (11)
anonymouse wrote on October 2, 2007 5:38 PM:See folks... neither the Republicans NOR the Democrats actually have a desire to clean up Congress... it is nothing but window dressing that they are willing to change. "We the People" are no longer involved in the process. We are but obstacles to push aside as the tyrany plows on... IMHO
anonymouse wrote on October 2, 2007 5:41 PM:Sorry... tyranny
Ed*ard Teller wrote on October 2, 2007 6:25 PM:Diane Benson, who wants to help clean up the US House by defeating Young in November, filed a query/complaint with the House Ethics Committee on September 17. Taxpayers for Common Sense followed Benson's lead a week later, and now Public Citizen is interested in the merits of this case. I do hope this is cleared up, or all sorts of Congressmen will be doing this, which would be absurd.
Kuparuk wrote on October 2, 2007 7:38 PM:Yeah, yeah, Diane *always* wants to defeat somebody....
Wonder if she'd work as hard to defeat him if she weren't running?
betty wrote on October 2, 2007 9:26 PM:Young's Secret Tweak? Young's Secret Tweak!
I wish someone would tweak me 10 million.
I can not believe that Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the democrats are just letting this slide by. Why haven't they sent this crook home in shame? When do we get our government back from these crooks?
parrot wrote on October 2, 2007 11:33 PM:Nancy and Harry have a new trick now - their mail box is always full so you can't leave a message. I guess I'll have to get a fax machine.
Taxation without representation. It's that simple folks. These folks have King George running things and they don't want to be bothered with things like our Constitution.
But, it is common that the stupid forget the founding of our country as if it was some accident talked about in history books.
The Congress has reinstated indentured servitude, rolled over and ignored all the un-Constitutional behavior of all branches of government. No branch is without rot. And there are no national politicians in either party that seems willing to call it how it is...instead, they all worship power over legality.
aklocal wrote on October 3, 2007 4:23 AM:So, who was the "enrolling clerk" mentioned in The Hill? Names, folks. There were people, individuals involved. I want to know their names. I want us all to know their names.
No person who was involved in or had knowledge of the post-passage change taking place should have a reasonable expectation that their name and reputation should not suffer from their action or inaction. I want to see the guilty punished, at a minimum in the court of public opinion.
At this point I don't know of any evidence that Don Young personally caused the Coconut Road earmark to be created. It stands to reason that he did, but I've been following the reports on this story closely and I've seen no direct evidence linking Don Young to the deed itself.
Governor Palin, maybe you can get some answers from Representative Young. Would you be so kind as to ask him to find out for us what happened? Thank you.
fastfeat wrote on October 3, 2007 10:48 AM:Gotta say something about the project when the locals don't want the proposed interchange.
Loxahatchee, FL
cracker wrote on October 3, 2007 4:03 PM:Ak local:
No one followed up on why Ted Stevens staffer gets paid $150k per year to do his personal bookkeeping
zero accountability
Its like the high jump for the wheelchair bound. Raise the bar just high enough for everyone to get over it and EVERYONES a winner!
sad
Borealfox wrote on October 3, 2007 5:08 PM:If you want to have some real fun see if you can find a picture of Don Young's "home" in Alaska. It's an old 10X50' trailer in Fort Yukon that's unlivable. It has a chain link fence around it topped with barbed wire. He hasn't been in it for years and years. This creep hasn't lived in Alaska since he moved to Washington.
Yeah, he's a crook and there's no doubt about it, and everyone in Alaska has known about it for years. Same as "Uncle" Ted Stevens, the only reason that they keep ending up back there is everyone wants that money they keep bringing home.
Right now all you gotta do is watch how many of our legislatures go to prison. Two have been convicted so far This Year with another one ready to go to trial, I think it's this month, with another one set after that.
What everyone is really waiting for is the other shoe to drop and "Uncle" Ted & his brat son Ben to be arrested along with Don Young and do the perp walk. Lets just hope that they all end up in Arizona with "Duke" Cunningham, right where they belong. And for a couple of them any sentence is going to be a death sentence as old as they are. But you know what? They deserve it with all the things that they've done!
I'm sick of them and have not voted for any of them in all the years that I've been in Alaska. Lets just pray that this time they've got their nuts caught in a rat trap, and it hurts real bad!
Borealfox
Borealfox wrote on October 3, 2007 5:10 PM:If you want to have some real fun see if you can find a picture of Don Young's "home" in Alaska. It's an old 10X50' trailer in Fort Yukon that's unlivable. It has a chain link fence around it topped with barbed wire. He hasn't been in it for years and years. This creep hasn't lived in Alaska since he moved to Washington.
Borealfox