Wednesday, July 18, 2007

GOP Rep Pitches Revenge Threat Hissy Over Pork

By Cernig

Classic!
Rep. Don Young attacked his fellow Republicans on the House floor Wednesday, as he defended education funds allocated to his home-state of Alaska.

"You want my money, my money," Young stridently declared before warning conservatives that, "Those who bite me will be bitten back."

Young took extreme exception to an amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to strike money in a spending bill for native Alaskan and Hawaiian educational programs.

Conservatives have stoked the ire of their fellow Republicans for years by challenging federal spending, both broadly and on specific projects. But it's rare that their GOP colleagues express that displeasure openly on the floor.

During his brief tirade Wednesday, Young suggested Republicans lost their majority because Garrett, whom he did not specifically name, and others had challenged spending during the GOP's tenure. He also had disparaging things to say about the great state of New Jersey - home to The Sopranos and Bon Jovi.
I love The Politico's spin on this story - that brave conservatives have been trying to reign in their colleagues pork for years. Laughable, just as Dem protestations of innocence were when they were in the minority.

But TPM has the video and a rather different account of Young's exact words:
"If we continue this we'll be called biting one another, very much like the mink in my state that kill their own," Young said. "There is always another day when those who bite will be killed, too. And I'm very good at that."
That's an entirely different level of lunacy.

The sad truth, as I see it, is that the majority always lards on the most pork - because it can. The minority always complains about that pork because it doesn't have as much clout to ensure its own re-election by sending home big chunks of bacon. It's only the "perpetual majority" GOPers who still believe they have an unalienable right to their pork, though, and this beef by a long-time ham merchant shows how deep seated that attitude is.

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