News of the Absurd

Binky Boy took issue with my commentary on pork king Charlie Rangel (D-NY). The reason: I quoted the New York Post (after all we know the only reliable media is the liberal media.)

Here’s a snippet of his major criticism:

Rangel has come under fire both for attempting to name a government-supported project after himself while he’s still in office – considered unseemly by many lawmakers – and for the huge fund-raising drive that is not subject to financial-disclosure or conflict-of-interest rules.

He’s come under fire? By whom? Where is the proof that he’s putting his own name on this center and that it isn’t something that the Harlem community is doing for a representative that they absolutely love? This is just a bunch of emotional fluff that no one like Adam will take the time to prove or look into.

Actually the answer comes two paragraphs down:

“I just don’t think it’s right for a member to donate taxpayer money to something with their name on it,” said Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.).

“In general, we do not name things after ourselves while we are great and powerful,” Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said.

So there’s the “Coming under fire” that was mentioned above. Binky Boy asks:

Binky Boy: Campbell’s quote could be about George W. Bush for all the context it is given. Kirk’s quote could have been said 10 years ago. Again, no sourcing, no fact, no issue.

Actually, the sources are Campbell and Kirk. Then Binky Boy engages some incredibly naive wishful thinking or utter partisan blindness (take your pick). This is a news article, not a research paper written with Chicago-style notations.

Anyway, Binky Boy calls over to Congressman Charlie Rangel’s office:

According to Emile Milne in Congressman Rangel’s office, the claims that Congressman Rangel named the center after himself are absolutely false. As well, the earmark was requested by the College that the center is part of. So if Adam has a problem with taxpayer dollars going to an educational center that is praising Congressman Rangel for his work in the community, then maybe he should step up and give all the facts.

Wow, and if we found out that Larry Craig sponsored an earmark for The Larry Craig School of Agriculture at the University of Idaho, I bet he’d just believe someone from Senator Craig’s office that it was meant to honor Senator Craig and he had nothing to do with it. First Rangel did sponsor the earmark for a center named after himself. If you don’t believe the New York Post, check the National Journal. Whoever’s idea it was, they wanted the Congressman’s support and they wanted the schools built to get funding: federal funding and funding from corporations who’d want to get the favor of the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman:

There is no legal requirement that Rangel disclose names of donors to the center, but his office provided an internal fund-raising document to The Post.

It lists $10 million from insurance firm AIG, $500,000 from the Verizon Foundation and $1 million from Eugene Isenberg, CEO of energy firm Nabors Industries.

Binky Boy: Ok, so Rangel gave them the information they requested, even though he didn’t have to, and it’s all on the up and up?

You think $10 million from AIG to fund a school named after the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee was given out of the goodness of AIG’s heart? $500,000 from Verizon. This is all on the up and up? Were this the Republican Chairman, I doubt Binky Boy would be so generous. Sometimes partisanship gets in the way of people’s common sense.

If this is only about the Center and its stated goals, it would have been built last year when Rangel had no power outside his talent for giving long-winded speeches.

UPDATE

New York Post, 1, Binky Boy, 0

From Congressman John Campbell’s (R-CA) blog, he clearly wasn’t talking about George W. Bush in the quote:

That’s right, the distinguished Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee wants $2 million of your money to establish the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service. The funding this earmark would go to would include, among other things, a library to house the Congressman’s future papers, a “well-furnished office” for him, and an endowment.

As Brit Hume put it, “he wants us to pay for a building named in his honor.”

The earmark violates the spirit, if not actual House Rules (Rule XXI, Clause 6) which says, “It shall not be in order to consider a bill, joint resolution, amendment, or conference report that provides for the designation or re-designation of a public work in honor of an individual then serving as a Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, or Senator.”

I asked the Chairman if it would be proper for me to request an earmark for the “John Campbell School of Fiscal Responsibility.” He said no “because i don’t think you have been around enough to inspire a building like this in a school.”

That’s OK, I don’t really want one. I just don’t believe that we should use the power and authority we have while in office to use taxpayer funds to create monuments to ourselves.

Campbell also has a video in which he explains that this center will include an office for Congressman Rangel (though Rangel says it will be after he retires.) Also, the center is named after Rangel by the University because under house rules Rangel can’t name it himself. The university created the school with Rangel’s name to get around the legal requirements.