Business, Republican style

Ordinarily I don't link to every single news story that illustrates the rampant corruption of the U.S. government, and particularly the blatant corruption of the one-party rule that the Republican Party has inflicted on it for the past few years. But this one is just too revealing to ignore.

It's from the New York Times, of course, which means that the thirty-percenters who still support Bush will automatically reject it as "liberal propaganda", since it didn't come from the Fox "News" that carefully tells them what it wants them to hear, carefully packaged in terms of what they want to hear. But for those who believe that reality still exists and should be consulted from time to time, it's very revealing.

Campaign Funds for Alaskan; Road Aid for Florida.

Selected quotes:

The road, a stretch of pavement near Fort Myers, Fla., that touches five golf clubs on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, is the target of a $10 million earmark that appeared mysteriously in a 2006 transportation bill written by Representative Don Young, Republican of Alaska.

Mr. Young, who last year steered more than $200 million to a so-called bridge to nowhere reaching 80 people on Gravina Island, Alaska, has no constituents in Florida.

The Republican congressman whose district does include Coconut Road says he did not seek the money. County authorities have twice voted not to use it, until Mr. Young and the district congressman wrote letters warning that a refusal could jeopardize future federal money for the county.

The Coconut Road money is a boon, however, to Daniel J. Aronoff, a real estate developer who helped raise $40,000 for Mr. Young at the nearby Hyatt Coconut Point hotel days before he introduced the measure.

Mr. Aronoff owns as much as 4,000 acres along Coconut Road. The $10 million in federal money would pay for the first steps to connect the road to Interstate 75, multiplying the value of Mr. Aronoff’s land.

He did not return phone calls seeking comment....

When he was approached near the House floor by a reporter, Mr. Young responded with an obscene gesture.

So, just to reiterate the key points: the locals don't want the interchange. The Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Federal Highway Administration advise against it. The local Congressional representative doesn't want it.

But a real-estate developer with money wants it, and he bribed a senior Republican committee member, so nothing else matters. And as for the rest of us, the authors of this cute little "business plan" feel no need to answer any questions or provide any comment other than a middle finger.

Meanwhile, the current Democratic House majority, although far from ideal on ethical issues, is at least willing to take some steps toward investigating and getting rid of its most blatantly corrupt members, something which the Republican Party refused to do during the years that it held power. For those of you who wonder why I've shifted from marginally preferring the Republican Party to anathematizing them and preferring anyone else, there's one clue.