SEN. VOINOVICH VOTES AGAINST NON-STIMULUS SPENDING BILL
‘It is irresponsible for us to attempt to save the present by mortgaging the future.’
A massive new Interstate 90 bridge in Cleveland will be named in honor of retiring U.S. Sen. George Voinovich. The tribute was announced Thursday night by Gov.-elect John Kasich and leading GOP state lawmakers during an Ohio Statehouse gathering celebrating Voinovich’s career. The Columbus Dispatch reports the 74-year-old Republican was moved to tears by the turnout of close friends and former staff members. He told them he took “fatherly pride” in having had the opportunity to touch their lives.
The new, $450 million bridge in Cleveland replaces the Inner Belt Bridge. The project received $85 million from the federal economic stimulus package.
Zifnab
Do you have any idea how many bridges I didn’t vote for? And not a damn one of them is named “The Zifnab Zifnabson Intercontinental Bridge to Awesometown”. All that work for nothing. I guess some people just never get the credit they are due.
artem1s
pretty ironic considering Taft’s ODOT designed the thing to pretty much bypass the city. It’s not a bridge to nowhere, just a bridge for suburbanites who hate to be reminded that there are brown people living in the middle of the county.
Kay
@artem1s:
Wouldn’t you be embarrassed? I mean, his name. After all that screaming.
Are we going to have to name community health centers after them too?
Brachiator
First Boehner and now Voinovich. Crying appears to be the new mark of sincerity for the GOP.
Cat Lady
Please merciful FSM, in my next life, I want a buck for every act of political hypocrisy, and two bucks for every time it goes unreported when it’s done by a GOPer. Amen.
Brian J
You almost have to wonder if we could have let the Bush tax cuts expire and used the money for infrastructure with the stipulation that every House member, senator, and governor could name one building, one bridge, and one other public work after him or herself. Maybe Jim DeMint wouldn’t have gone along with it, but I’d guess that you’d get at least half of them to consider it.
On a more serious note, has anyone asked why these so-called moderates like Voinovich didn’t propose something like what Andrew Samwick, former Bush economist, proposed, which was letting them all expire and then using the money for infrastructure investments? If nothing else, the debate might have shifted into a slightly more positive direction.
The Bobs
@Brachiator:
As Roger Ebert said about Boehner, they only cry when reminded of their own greatness.
one two seven
Artem1s wins the thread.
Pangloss
Reminds me of The Crosstown Bridge in Capital City.
http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Capital_City_Suspension_Bridge
Bnut
Cleveland is still a city? I thought everyone pulled a Jonestown aftetr Lebron left.
burnspbesq
Wait a sec.
My dim recollection from before I moved to SoCal is that pretty much every mile of Interstate 90 from Boston to Chicago (even the parts that were toll roads and supposedly had a dedicated source of maintenance funds) was pretty much beat to shit and falling apart. I have no trouble believing that the Inner Belt Bridge (which I drove over a few times when I attended my brother’s wedding in Cleveland in 1985) is long overdue for replacement.
I thought Democrats were in favor of rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. Is that support conditional, and if so, on what is it conditioned?
Tax Analyst
Jeez, do these guys EVER not cry?
I understand the Republicans are planning to use all the money they intend to cut from the social safety net programs to buy up all the tears of the poor and middle-class and then redistribute them to Republican Senators and Congressmen.
But they really do have to cry at their good fortune, especially when it’s been achieved by putting further hurt to those already in pain. They can’t acknowledge that, so henceforth the tears.
Never have so many given so much to so few who are so little deserving.
Hmmm, I’m thinking that might be a good addition to the rotating BJuice top banner.
Martin
I think the Dems should hold the line on the omnibus. From what I can tell, the final deal is what the GOP asked for. The reason that some Republicans are backing out now has nothing to do with the final number, but the fact that they have earmarks that they requested in there and now have to vote against out of their newfound earmark religion to the teapartiers. Dems need to make these assholes eat their votes.
danimal
Ahhh, can’t even snark on this one. I hope there were some nasty demonstrators to rain on his parade, pissing him off after this emotional dedication. I’m sure there were Tea Party protests about the excessive pork spending, right?
(crickets)
srv
So Voinovich and Krugman agree on something.
BruceFromOhio
Classic case of connecting two unconnected events.
Whapping stupid teatards and hypocrites, no problem, plenty to go around. And George’s vote against the stimulus is indefensible.
But this particular bridge has been a target for replacement for over a decade. The funding has been available well before this, it’s been the shit and shove between ODOT, the city and various citizens and business groups that’s been the cause of most of the delays. The only reason its even being geared up now is because of the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis – this bridge is the same design, and has had enough constant tinkering and band-aids that’s its time has come.
The soulless ratfuck sonofabitch Kasich is throwing a bone to “them that brung him” to the Governor’s chair in Columbus. And Georgie has no incentive to do the right thing with his votes, he’s retiring to be replaced by another soulless ratfuck sonofabitch, Rob Portman (yes, THAT Rob Portman) because Ohio Democrats couldn’t find their asses with a flashlight and Google maps.
So, I’ve no love for any of these players. But this bridge didn’t just fall out of teh sky, it’s been a long, sordid tale.
@artem1s: Yes, let’s tear down the bridge and route everybody down St. Clair fucking avenue. That’ll show ’em!
BruceFromOhio
@Bnut: You are free to consume fecal matter and expire. Or not.
GO BROWNS
srv
So is the WSJ correct, this bill actually does nothing for the 99’ers?
Breezeblock
The United States is a very embarassing country these days.
Bnut
@BruceFromOhio: I’m a Knicks fan, I eat plenty of it already.
Buck
I dug a little deeper…
This isn’t SOP, is it? Everyone wins? Makes me want to go out and buy myself a construction name and start putting in bids all over town!
Also, too, I wonder if the winning bidder and the losing bidder aren’t one and the same (just a different name)? Hey, another million would be the icing on the cake!
Bulworth
@Brachiator: Crying for themselves of course.
artem1s
@burnspbesq:
we have no problem with rebuilding the bridge. it is long overdue. but the GOP dominated state house has made sure that all of the design decisions are being made by people who hate the politics of the city. There were numerous community meetings on features that the residents wanted/needed and they were pretty much laughed at by ODOT who had already decided to build a bypass.
They killed all of the suggestions made by the communities who get to see their neighborhoods torn up by construction and bypass traffic for 3-5 years. not to mention that all of the features that would actually serve the city and not just highway traffic got turned down.
You need to understand this is the only freeway into the city proper. While you may think that downtown is dying, the largest employers in the county are still located there, not in the suburbs. There is also a thriving upscale condo market in the warehouse district as well as the MidTown corridor which will get killed when 2 of the 5 main on/off ramps get eliminated.
There are really too many issues to list here. The problem is we have to live with whatever they build for the next 50 years. It’s extremely vital to how the city survives/grows. While its easy to make jokes, the northeast part of the state still has the most commerce/population/money/education/etc. If it dies, so does Columbus and Cincy and pretty much the rest of the state.
Ohio was pretty much nothing but farmland until the 1960s, except for Cleveland. It’s not just a historical issue of saving it, its about leveraging the advantages of that geographic location to draw new industries into the state to replace the steel and rubber. It can be done but not if you don’t fix the infrastructure to encourage it. This new bypass could be a great asset to the whole area. Instead its nothing but a naming opportunity and graft for corrupt ODOT officials who are bent on killing the last bastion of Democrats and labor unions in the state.
Napoleon
@artem1s:
Huh?
Being that I live in Cleveland and you apparently do not maybe you do not realize that 1) the bridge mirrors an existing bridge that predates the birth of our current President and was likely built when Taft was in diapers and 2) regardless it runs right to the southern edge of downtown right where Progressive Field is at.
NonyNony
@Brachiator:
To be fair, Voinovich bawled his eyes out when John “Walrus Moustache of Freedom” Bolton was getting confirmed. I remember he got a sound mocking by the left and the right for his tears at the thought of Bolton going into the UN. So he got there well before Boehner did.
Napoleon
@Buck:
I guess I am going to have to defend ODOT but this wasn’t some cookie cutter 40 foot span over Dickweed Creek. The construction companies that bid had to come in with fully engineered designs for a massive one of a kind bridge. To encourage bidders the state basically sad they would pick up the cost to the second bidder.
Svensker
@burnspbesq:
Are you deliberately not getting the point? Hello?
General Stuck
@Zifnab:
No one would want to see the name Stuck on a bridge.
Svensker
@NonyNony:
I cried my eyes out, too, when Bolton went to the U.N. (as I recall, he was never confirmed, but had to be recess appointed). But perhaps my tears stemmed from a different emotion than Voinovich’s.
Davis X. Machina
Not bad, but not the Bud Shuster Interstate Highway, either.
Bud got the DOT to shit-can the entire interstate numbering convention for his little bit of heaven-cum-US-220. The $83 million removal treatment, and replacement of a million yards of acidic pyrites was one of the civil & environmental engineering feats of the decade, at least in the NE.
debbie
Since this is more or less an Ohio thread, I heard our brilliant governor-to-be Kasich speaking to reporters holding microphones that he thought that one of Ohio’s biggest problems was that there was too much transparency. I heard it on the radio, but this article describes it:
http://cincinnati.com/blogs/politics/2010/12/17/kasich-no-fan-of-transparency/
Cordray canot get back here quickly enough.
debbie
Oops. That second paragraph is supposed to be part of the blockquote. Sorry.
debbie
@NonyNony:
He also cried back when he was a holdout on a Republican spending bill. He said the pressure was just too much.
Brachiator
@NonyNony:
I’m sure that Boehner was crying on the inside. But I take your point.
Meanwhile, Sarah Palin whines about not being able to get away with crying. And I think she also calls Boehner a wuss.
catclub
@Martin:
The Omnibus trainwreck is at least some % an own goal.
The Democrats decided, in their infinite wisdom, to NOT go with reconciliation for the budget this year. That is why, for a budget bill, they still need 60 votes.
Is there any good reason for this? I don’t know.
NonyNony
@debbie:
Big shock. A Wall Street shill thinks government problems stem from the little people knowing too much about what’s going on in government.
I’m glad the election between he and Strickland was close – it leaves me with some hope for this goddamn state – but the people in this state are sometimes just too stupid to breathe. Why anyone would think John Kasich will be a decent governor for this state is beyond me – he’s like Bob Taft but without Taft’s charisma or doofus charm. And without Taft’s moral center. And Taft performed wonders for the state.
I’m waiting for a bit of shadenfreude though – some of my friends who work in the capital are hearing rumors that Kasich is already majorly pissing off the Republican leadership in the state Assembly. It would be so awesome if, now that the GOPers have control of every fucking branch of government in this state again, they managed to spend the next two years fighting with each other. I will say one thing – if there’s a man out there who knows how to turn allies into enemies it’s John “Smirking Asshole” Kasich.
JPL
Would it be redundant to call him both a hypocrite and an Republican?
PhoenixRising
@burnspbesq: Well, I’m no Democrat, but the Inner Belt needed to be replaced.
My support for bridges that hold up traffic is not conditional on them NOT being named after Republican politicians. However, George’s opposition to ‘the stimulus’ is either hypocritical or a sign of serious derangement on the part of Congresscritters–too many of whom are either liars or fools, because they know THEIR district needs roads but demand budget cuts.
Linda Featheringill
Voinovich notwithstanding, Cuyahoga County could certainly use a stimulus.
Hooray for small bits of good news.
one two seven
I don’t think anyone here is opposed to the bridge being built, but considering how poorly planned its been, having Mr. 49% name it after a politician who voted against some of the funds that are going to get it built is just adding insult to injury to those of us in NE Ohio.
Buck
@Napoleon:
I see. Still a pretty sweet deal though.
DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective
@Brachiator:
Word on the Streeternet is that Boehner cries because he is a morbid alcoholic who is unstable.
Brachiator
@DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective:
Oh, well, at least he’s not an angry drunk.
Cue Richard Nixon’s ethnic rant:
Boehner was the second of twelve children in a German-Irish family.
burnspbesq
@Svensker:
That depends. We probably don’t agree on what “the point” is.
burnspbesq
@PhoenixRising:
Hypocrisy and derangement aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, they may be strongly correlated.
debbie
@NonyNony:
Well, the wife did set up a nice herb garden at the Mansion.
I’ve heard the same rumblings from the Republicans I know. Even my very Republican brother is already looking forward to voting for Cordray in 2014.
Davis X. Machina
@catclub: There’s no reconciliation, because there’s no budget. Everything is running on continuing reconciliations.
There was a caucus-wide consensus not to have a budget-budget in an election year, lest the GOP lard up the accompanying enabling legislation up with amendments on wedge issues designed to create embarrassing campaign ads.
Create two, three, many DADT votes…