In a lovely little follow-up to a diary I did last week, the New York Times is reporting, this morning, that Don Young has been rebuffed! You will remember (of course you do!):
In 2005, rapscallion Congressman Don Young (R) of Alaska snuck in a $10 million earmark for a highway interchange (the "Coconut Road" project) which stood to benefit real estate mini-mogul Daniel Aranoff. The earmark appeared just days after Aranoff raised $40,000 for Young at a fundraiser. Adding to the fun on this little escapade is that this was an earmark for a road building project in Florida, which -- unless my spatial reasoning is failing me -- must be about as far as you can get in the United States from Alaska, the state Young nominally represents.
The 'Coconut Road' earmark wasn't in the bill passed by the House and Senate. But it is there now.
Apparently Young added the text after Congress had already passed it but before the president signed it.
Now, it seems:
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.
The connections were too much for the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization, said Carla Johnston, its chairwoman and a Democrat.
Thank goodness there is a Democrat at the helm!
On Friday, the members of the organization voted overwhelmingly to return the money in the hope that Congress would let them spend it elsewhere in the county.
Not likely, but a grand gesture in support of honest government.
Adding to the intrigue, a researcher commissioned by Ms. Johnston said Mr. Young had added the earmark for the interchange to a transportation bill after both chambers of Congress had approved it, at a time Congressional aides were cleaning up the bill for President Bush’s signature.
"People were really highly outraged at the process," Ms. Johnston said. "It was a classic end run."
Outrage was the precipitating factor in my diary. The idea that a Congressman could creep into the bowels of the Capital in the wee hours, while a bill's language and punctuation is being cleaned up, and insert a $10 million reward for a fund raiser is outrageous. The idea that the addition was never voted on, never debated, never even vetted by the House, the Conference Committee or anyone one else, before it was slipped in and sent to the President for his signature, is outrageous.
Nice to see the story is growing legs. Now if Alaska will just wake up and toss this man who does not understand Consitutional government, or the democratic process, out on his ear, justice will be served.