When you work in politics, there are things you hear and read that you have trouble believing.
Congressman Nick Rahall, Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, recently offered two gems (in a single interview!).
The first is just a classic. Chairman Rahall gets confused and inexplicably commits a truth. At the tail end of a response to a relatively easy question (“Will the EPA always have an adversarial relationship with West Virginia or is there room for compromise, and is climate change a real issue and what role does West Virginia play in the future of the environment?”), he offers that saying that climate change does not exist is the same as saying that Santa Claus does not exist:
“Climate change — to deny it exists, to just put your head in the sand and, ‘oh no, it doesn’t exist, what are you talking about,’ is about like standing on the floor of Macy’s during the month of December and claiming Santa Claus doesn’t exist.”
Obviously, Spike Maynard (his opponent) needs to ask for some clarification.
The second is almost as good. When asked (again, very simply, “If you had to cut one federal program or agency, which one would it be?”), Chairman Rahall blathered on for about 200 words without identifying a single government agency he would cut. Part of the ramble included, “I think most of the agencies serve a purpose and a useful purpose. The Veterans Administration, a very good agency and has helped our veterans. We gave them the largest single increase in veterans funding in its history.” That encapsulated the disconnect between DC and the remainder of the planet – when asked for a program to cut, the 38-term Congressman (just kidding, I think) notes how he gave a federal bureaucracy the largest increase in its history.
Folks, you can’t make this stuff up.
