It turns out that Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia also had a secret hold on the bill, not just Ted Stevens. That is no surprise to anyone who knows Washington. Byrd is the Democratic doppelganger to the Republican Stevens. His spokesman, amusingly, claims that Byrd didn't really want to stop the bill, he just wanted time to read it before signing off on it. Uh, yeah, right. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge to nowhere - named after Sen. Byrd, naturally - to sell you. If he really wants time to read the bills before he votes on them, why isn't Byrd supporting the Read the Bills Act, which would require that all bills be read out loud on the floor of both houses, and be published on the internet in final form for 7 days, before a vote is held? Obviously, because that bill would make it more difficult to hide pet projects and pork spending from the public and the media. And since Byrd was the undisputed king of pork spending when he was in the position that Stevens is now - and obviously hopes to be again soon - that's a bill he would put a secret hold on if it came anywhere near close to passing. I still think they should sneak the Read the Bills Act on to page 1739 of some omnibus appropriations bill, just for irony's sake.
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"I still think they should sneak the Read the Bills Act on to page 1739 of some omnibus appropriations bill, just for irony's sake."
that would be worth toasting.
Again, it's not surprising at all that Byrd would be online with Mr. Tubes on this. He has been named the King of Pork in the past and WV is ranked #5 for last year in per capita pork.
Coincidentally, the episode of The Simpsons where Krusty runs for Congress was on syndication in the D.C. area yesterday. The Simpsons want Krusty to pass a law to change the flight pattern of a nearby airport to somewhere other than directly over their house, but he can't do it. When the Simpsons come to help him out, they encounter Walter Mondale (now working as the janitor on Capitol Hill) and he gets the bill passed. Lisa snuck in while everyone was distracted and paper-clipped the bill to the Balloons for Orphans Act.
...since Byrd was the undisputed king of pork spending when he was in the position that Stevens is now...
Chairman of the Commerce Committee??
Since 1989, Byrd has been the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations whenever the Democrats have had control of the Senate. Stevens has been chairman of that committee whenever Republicans have had control since 1997, until 2005 when Thad Cochran took over as chair. That committee controls all discretionary spending. Now Stevens is chair of the Commerce Committee.