Well, you say; that's necessary, right? Well, yes-to limit the gridlock, but keep in mind the amount of tax-payer money required to use Air Force One from Washington to LA, then Marine One to skip around LA. And this was all to hold a fundraising rally for Barbara Boxer.
Your tax dollars at work, folks.
And what a day it was. At USC, the crowd was warmed up by that professional crowd warmer-upper, Mayor Tony Villar aka Villaraigosa, noted playboy, failed lawyer and failed mayor, who is considered a possible Democratic presidential candidate simply because he is a young, handsome Latino.
This time, Mayor Tony led the crowd in that old traditional Democratic chant, "Si, se puede, Si se puede", which in Spanish, I guess means "Happy days are here again.".
(Save the cards and letters; I know what it means.)
And aside from Boxer, guess who else was there. "Run-Down" Jerry Brown himself, who gave a "rousing" speech in whcih he proclaimed that California, with its "$1.8 trillion economy", had plenty of money to provide all kinds of services for the least powerful among us-or some such nonsense (Can you say income redistribution?). He also said that with our "$1.8 trillion economy", we didn't need oil from Saudi Arabia; we could provide all the green energy we needed, blah blah blah, woof woof woof, quack quack quack. Of course, nobody told Jerry, who is running for governor again, that the state is on the edge of bankruptcy, people and businesses are leaving in droves, and the unemployment rate is 12.4%. Never mind all that.
After USC, it was off to Glendale for Obama, who was interviewed on a Spanish-language radio station by a guy named Piolin (Tweety Bird), a DJ, who was once an illegal alien from Mexico, and who was about to be deported at one point before got himself legitimized. At one point in the interview, he referred to Republicans as "enemies" of the Latino community. Where I come from, that's called race-baiting.
Then back to Burbank Airport to board Marine One, fly across the skies of LA to LAX and off to Las Vegas to join Harry Reid for a rally, then off to Washington State for Patty Murray, then.........
Do you really want to know the rest?
But all the while, Villaraigosa was at USC shouting,
"Si se puede. Si se puede."
5 comments:
and so?
And so? Your tax dollars at work, Siarlys-all to re-elect Boxer and Reid and Murray plus some dope in Minnesota.
You mean the money it costs to fly the president around? This came up the night he took Michelle to New York to watch a show also. There are only three ways to go on this:
1) As long as he is president, the president may not travel for any reason except official government business. No campaign trips, no visits home, and no nights out with the family.
2) When the president wants to travel on personal business, he goes without the secret service or the helicopters, and all terrorists are strictly notified that they are not to interfere with his or her personal time.
3) Unfortunate though it may be, as long as he (or she) is president, we are going to have to foot a considerable bill to handle the travel consistent with secret service protocols.
I'll accept (3). If you prefer (1) or (2), say so, and give us a brief summary of how it would have applied to George W. Bush.
It would be nice if we were back in the days when Vice-President Jefferson stayed in a boarding house, or when Andrew Jackson responded to an attempted assassination by bringing a stout walking stick down on the head of the deranged man wielding the pistol. But I'm not sure those days will ever come back again.
How about the DNC or RNC foot the bill for campaign trips?
Fair enough, although either the DNC or the RNC might quibble about paying for the additional cost of transporting the secret service detail. Noting that the RNC has never offered to do that, nor I'm sure has the DNC, if you render this as a nonpartisan proposal to take politicking off the taxpayers' tab, I'm for it.
Realistically, we all need to recognize that the president, whoever he or she may be, is a political animal, the de facto leader of their party, and anything they do is going to have political overtones. Logistics of their travel will be handled by the government, secret service, military, civilian logistics... It should be possible to calculate reasonable reimbursement.
I'm also dubious that ANY president of EITHER party has the impact that pundits and campaign staffs expect them to have. In the end, people vote for the individual candidate for senate, house, governor, etc. They don't really vote because "s/he's The President's Annointed." I wish presidents and campaign committees grasped that.
I pay a little more attention to letters and emails signed by either of the Obamas than I do to other communications from the DNC, but in the end, I don't respond to the DNC. I respond to the campaigns of individual candidates I choose to support.
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