Alice In Chains Salute To Sen. McConnell

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by Smitty

The ritual, symbolic sacrifices of Tea Partiers to Cthulhu will continue for months, of course. However, this blog should note that there was a fine piece of bacon tucked into The Bill That Lifted The Tea Party Curse. Thanks, Mitch. We know you’re a mortal man, but it is good to know your price:

A proposal to end the government shutdown and avoid default orchestrated by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Harry Reid includes a $2 billion earmark for a Kentucky project.
Language in a draft of the McConnell-Reid deal (see page 13, section 123) provided to WFPL News shows a provision that increases funding for the massive Olmsted Dam Lock in Louisville from $775 million to nearly $2. 9 billion.
The dam is considered an important project for the state and region in regards to water traffic along the Ohio River.

In defense of McConnell, this is actually the sort of multi-State infrastructure project that actually has some reasonable Constitutional merit. But let’s not kid ourselves: America is Alice, and she is in chains:

Oh, you couldn’t dam that river
And maybe I don’t give a damn anyway
So you couldn’t dam that river
And it washed me so far away

This cut captures the mood right now in so many ways.

Update: more at Catholic Bandita

56 comments

  2. It is obvious to anyone who drives a truck, as I do, that the stimulus package is being used to rebuild the highways in the rust belt states. The massive amount of construction on interstates is beyond obvious. So to have grabbed some money for a state like Kentucky in my eyes is not a big deal.

  3. As the tweet notes “the timing and the optics stink out loud”. But I do note in the post that this is actually a reasonable use of taxpayer loot.

  7. It was obvious that the eGOP was going to cave at some point. Mitch and the gang in the Senate have been preemptively surrendering for decades. Boehner can’t wait to surrender and shed a few tears at every chance to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

    We knew this was coming. It was only a matter of time.

  8. Which is precisely why it was offered. McConnell didn’t request it; according to the Wapo, Obama did, and Lamar Alexander and DiFi drafted the language. It’s also a Tennessee project.

  9. The question moves to how the Tea Party/Vichy GOP relationship evolves next year. It’s like a lousy marriage of two people who’re only slightly less dysfunctional together than apart.

  11. Infrastructure always seems like a good use of the public’s treasure…

    I live near the junction of three interstates that is undergoing a long overdue upgrade and it seems reasonable… But I also lived through the “Big Dig” in Boston – necessary perhaps, but a fiasco overall with the poor planning and design, massive cost overruns and poor workmanship!

  14. The problem is the GOP’s function isn’t what it claims. All the calls for a third party are superfluous until we have a second party.

  17. 2012 will likely be the last election I voted Republican – certainly for President. I’ll sleep better knowing that I will be voting my conscious rather than the lesser of two evils.

    This country is going to have to hit rock bottom before, and if, it gets better. Let. It. Burn.

  18. McConnell had to raise the price on his damn dam project too because the trade off for raising the debt ceiling is another downgrade on our credit and devaluation of our dollar. They all know it……they’ve all been warned what needs to be done….and they don’t care. These days hope is a candle I keep lighting only to watch one of the guys who should be on our side (or at least on the side of any reason or common sense) carelessly pissing out the flame. And so goes the torch of liberty.

  19. The establishment GOP is like your family member who’s become a drug addict or alchoholic and for a long time you keep trying to make excuses for them and enable them at your own peril hoping they’ll change. It’s time to cut the sanctimonious, self-serving dinosaurs out of every party.

  20. The request for this funding actually came from Obama at the behest of the Army Corps of Engineers. Not that facts should disrupt a typical trashing, though.

  22. In the final analysis Judas did it pro bono as he threw the silver back at the Priests and walked out and hung himself in remorse. Would that the GOP “leadership” would have the grace to do that politically. Sad to say that their morals are on a lower level than Judas’.

  23. SO? The facts are still bad and sweeten the pot, although I doubt it would have taken that to get McConnell to betray us.

  24. That’s putting a fresh spray of Fabrez on an elephant turd to knock down the odor. But at this point, I’d settle for any alternative to taxpayer dollars going to aid or arm terrorists. (Of course, if it was Obama’s idea then maybe ACORN or SEIU members, like the Obamacare navigators, will be hired for the project.)

  25. Question is, knowing that, why do we still hope for a different outcome every time? It’s theatre of the absurd loop #8.

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