From The New York Times:
It is not often that a local government tries to turn down $10 million in federal construction money.
But then it is not every day that an Alaska congressman surprises a Florida community with the gift of a highway interchange that just happens to abut the property of a major political fund-raiser.The money for the interchange was the work of Representative Don Young, the Alaska Republican who was chairman of the transportation committee before the last election.
Original DVD cover.
More from the NYT:
Officials of Lee County considered the project a low priority, environmental groups opposed it and the Republican congressman from the district never asked for it.
But the interchange, on Interstate 75 at a place called Coconut Road, would be a boon to Daniel J. Aronoff, a Michigan real estate developer with adjacent property who helped raise $40,000 in donations to Mr. Young at a fund-raiser in the region shortly before Mr. Young inserted an earmark for the project in a transportation bill.
From the Anchorage Daily News:
The Metropolitan Planning Organization voted 10-3 Friday to scuttle a proposed study on the interchange that would have connected I-75 to Coconut Road in Lee County, despite warnings from some on the board and the board’s staff that the move could hurt the county’s chances for future federal road money. Some in Congress have also already suggested as much, including Fort Myers Republican Connie Mack.
So lemme get this straight: A congressman from Alaska asked for money for a road in Florida to benefit a guy in Michigan who raised money for the congressman from Alaska.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
This is my favorite part of the story:
“Officials of Lee County considered the project a low priority, environmental groups opposed it and the Republican congressman from the district never asked for it.”
Just baffle them with blatant bullshit!
I’m loving all the little details: RNC DVD, the license plate, the lapel pin, the street sign…
Nice work, nonnie, again!
amazing, isn’t it? especially the part about lee county being penalized later on for doing the right thing now.
“No good deed goes unpunished”, the Republican Party has made this sarcasm the foundation of their movement. An honest action must be condemed and shuned and punished as a betrayal, “Loyalty”, means never admit anything and “morality”, is a four letter word.
Hello Nonnie!! 😛
This is a fabulous story about rethuglian graft and pay back, particularly as it has some wit and an amusing quality about it.
Of course what adds to the fun is that the wit and amusing quality were completely inadvertent on the part of this particular rethuglian, as all rethuglians to a man lack any kind of wit worth mentioning. In fact all the jokes that rethuglians make are always so much better precisely because rethuglians don’t see them as jokes.
Don Young would have been been having warm self-righteous rethuglian “doing the right thing by my buddy” feelings when he slipped that little earmark in. For instance, it would never have been a question in his mind: What right do I have to be interfering with the affairs of Florida which is only a billion miles away from my constituency on the other side of the earth? (Alaska being in the northern hemisphere, and Florida being in the southern hemisphere part of the US).
If Don had considered the hemispheric differences between locations he could have seen the funny side, but I promise you he didn’t.
fotc,
i think the rethug philosophy is that no bad deed will go unrewarded. why should they even try to play fair when cheating has worked so well for them for so long?
hi mighty mikk0mouse 😀 !!!!
this whole story would have seemed unbelievable just a few decades ago. now, it is an everyday occurrence. these bastards have no shame whatsoever. where was don young when new orleans was drowning? he wasn’t worried about the southeast back then.
i think the first thing one must have in order to have a sense of humor is the ability to recognize your own frailties, as almost everyone can relate to them. the rethugs either don’t recognize their own flaws, or they just stubbornly refuse to acknowledge them. as a result, they debase anyone who has these frailties. that’s why they have no sense of sympathy or empathy. that is, of course, until they find themselves on the short end of the stick. all this put together means that they have no sense of self, no sense of what makes people human, and, therefore, no sense of humor either.
along with a lack of a sense of humor, they also lack the ability to recognize irony when it smacks them square in the face.
They can’t play fair for the same reason they can’t tell the truth = They are greedy, selfish, smug, thieving, heartless, manipulating SOBs and they would never get elected to anything. They seem to be OK with that. It’s a shame that Bush and the fools who voted for him, will be taking the rest of us down with them.
c’mon, fotc, tell us what you really think about rethugs!! 😆
you are so correct–the worst thing is that they drag everyone down with them.