Sen. Patty Murray boasts that her earmarks have created jobs and helped local companies that have good products.
Posted on 10/22/2007 12:59:03 PM PDT by lilylangtree
Tucked away on Seattle's Portage Bay, a sleek, 85-foot speedboat sat idle for years — save for an annual jaunt to maintain its engine.
The Navy paid $4.5 million to build the boat. But months before the hull ever touched water, the Navy gave the boat to the University of Washington. The school never found a use for it, either.
Why would the Navy waste taxpayer dollars on a boat that nobody wanted?
Blame it on Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird. All three exercised their political muscle to slip language into a 2002 spending bill to force the Navy to buy the boat from Edmonds shipbuilder Guardian Marine International.
Year after year, the Washington lawmakers did favors for the tiny company, inserting four "earmarks" into different bills to force the Navy and Coast Guard to buy boats they didn't ask for — $17.65 million in all. None of the boats was used as Congress intended.
The congressional trio say they were helping Guardian Marine because it had a great product. But each has also received generous campaign donations from the company's three executives, its sole employees: $14,277 to Baird, $15,000 to Murray, and $16,750 to Dicks.
Earmarks are federal dollars that members of Congress dole out to favor seekers — often campaign donors. In the process, lawmakers advocate for the companies, helping them bypass the normal system of evaluation and competition.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003948586&zsection_id=2003749463&slug=favorfactory14m&date=20071014
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
That’s not just pork, that’s a bribery/kickback scandal.
Sen. Patty Murray boasts that her earmarks have created jobs and helped local companies that have good products.
If we had only elected a republican president, the attorney general would be drawing up charges. Oh wait a minute!!!! Sac off
“Tucked away on Seattle’s Portage Bay, a sleek, 85-foot speedboat sat idle for years...”
Shoot, I’ll take it.
Patty “Osama Mama” Murray is a classic Dimocrap. There is no limit as to the money her constituents are worth. Or, put another way, no bribe too great for her political contributers.
Remember, Patty Murray believe Osama set up KinderKare for al-Qaeda members.
“Sen. Patty Murray boasts that her earmarks have created jobs...”
“The congressional trio say they were helping Guardian Marine because it had a great product. But each has also received generous campaign donations from the company’s three executives, its sole employees...”
Sole employees? That 4.5 million sure created a lot of jobs. Woo Hoo.
Sure does look sleek and sweet, don’t she ?
Is this Tupperware or aluminum? (doesn’t look like wood)
I guess you could force me to use it. :-)
I’ll gladly take it off their hands for a mere $10G’s..........
The senator or the boat?............
Sort of like promoting IMF loans to Russia that were recycled through Marc Rich to the Clintons and Algore.
Hunter's Folly: $63 Million Aircraft Can't Fly
Duncan Hunter: Never Mind What the Navy Says, This Plane is AWESOME
New Video of Plane Crashes; $63 Million Plane 0 for 49 in Tests
I’d take it, but only if Patty Murray agreed to pay my boatyard bills.
I’ve been through a lot of boats in my time, and the small ones are best, because they don’t cost an arm and a leg to store and maintain.
Yabut ... just once ... to open ‘er up ...
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