Monday, March 2, 2009
Cooper Votes Against Fixing Leaky Dam to Save Nashville from Flooding
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 8:20 AM
Cooper delights in his cranky contrariness. His shtick is wearing very thin. His vote against the dam fix is yet another one of his so-called principled stands. He's refusing to vote for what he considers to be pork-barrel projects--and he's refusing to ask for any for Nashville.
OK, but what do we do about that leaky dam in the meantime? Luckily,
Sen. Lamar Alexander has no such fussy qualms about pork spending. He
asked for the money for the dam, and it's included in the budget bill
making its way through Congress.
Cooper himself, of course, has asked for appropriations earmarks in the past--money for charities, education and other worthwhile community projects. In a Tennessean opinion piece only a year ago, he wrote, "Let me be clear: I play today's political game so that the Nashville area will not be disadvantaged." We suspect he held that viewpoint at a time when he wasn't so sure about the safeness of his congressional seat.
Comments (4)
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What is kind of strange about Cooper and his status as a Blue Dog Democrat is that Nashville, while not Portland or San Francisco, is not all that particularly conservative either. Lincoln Davis and John Tanner have to watch their right flank. Jim Cooper doesn't. He is never going to be in danger of losing to a Republican or a more conservative Democrat. Not the way the district is currently carved up. If anything, he is more in danger of losing a primary from somebody to the left. So I don't particularly know what to make of Cooper, other than maybe he is the rare politician who just votes his principles. But that can't be it either......
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Why is it considered pork to ask for money to repair a leaking dam that if breached could do multi millions of dollars in damage and take untold human lives? If that is pork then pass me the bbq sauce.
Interesting that Lamar Alexander inserted this project in the spending bill, but didn't think it worthy of his vote.
"Interesting that Lamar Alexander inserted this project in the spending bill, but didn't think it worthy of his vote."
You're thinking of the stimulus bill that's already become law. This funding for the dam is included in the omnibus appropriations bill, which is separate legislation that hasn't been voted on yet in the Senate.
