Haven't heard a heck of a lot since our Cowardman made up an excuse to avoid running for re-election.
Baird spent a lot of our money to take trips. On many of them, he decided that it would, apparently, help his "research" if his wife accompanied him.
I'm not exactly sure how that works. But KOIN 6 news has been bull-dogging Baird's travel proclivities in a way that actually reminds me of something approaching journalism, a characteristic long since missing from our local paper, which essentially has acted as Baird's PR arm for a decade.
Here's part of the story... the rest is on their web site.
But first, I just fricking hate it when elected officials and or their staff take advantage of the tax payer for their little vacations, eating expensive food that most of us can't afford, playing us for suckers while they "research."
Sickening.
Congrats to the KOIN 6 news team who has been on this for a long time.
WHY QUIT NOW?
VANCOUVER, Wash. – Congressman Brian Baird announced that he would not seek re-election on Dec. 9. It was a surprising move considering most political pundits figured he would be re-elected fairly easily.
A common question raised by his announcement was, "Why quit now?"
At the time of his announcement, Baird said he wanted to spend more time with his wife and twin sons.
KOIN Local 6 repeatedly tried to get a statement from the Democratic representative of Southwest Washington, but Baird denied all requests.
Baird had been under fire recently for traveling to South America and Antarctica to study climate change. A Wall Street Journal article estimates Baird was one of the most expensive travelers, racking up $500,000 visiting 10 countries during five trips in 2008.
The trips led to the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act in March, which will allocate $96 million over the next four years to study decreasing pH levels in the oceans. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 also came about from the trips. Learn more about the Act by reading the specifics about the bill here and here.
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Gotta wonder. Why is he refusing interviews? Did he get a death threat from a member of the media?
I meant to watch their report last evening, but got distracted.
ReplyDeleteNot all that surprising, I emailed Brancaccio about KOIN's 11 PM report and as you can expect, never received a reply.
It's just as good Baird is leaving, other than the harm he can do now with total impunity since there will be no constituency backlash to worry about.
Still, I think he will manage quite well of the 12 years he sucked on the public teat.
Now, to watch who we allow to replace him and how they would follow suit, especially if they have already shown a proclivity while employed by an elected official.