PrintOctober 17, 2010
'Government Official of the Year'
Sometimes the words of a public servant seem indistinguishable from those of a teenage Valley Girl. For example, in a recent interview, Michigan state representative Marie Donigan attempted to justify another $500M light rail boondoggle on the basis that it would enable her constituents to get drunk in downtown Detroit and ride back to Royal Oak without getting cited for DUI:
[3:15 on video] If I drink more than two beers and I'll... two beers and I'll get on the street and I'll get arrested for drunk driving and ruin my life. People really don't want to do that anymore...
It's comforting to know that she no longer wants to ruin her life, but doesn't she realize how difficult it is to shoot straight while drunk and trying to fend off muggers in a public transit car? Wouldn't it be better to spend taxpayer money first on reducing Detroit's murder rate and ambulance response times?
Or, since the interest alone on the $500M Ms. Donigan wants to spend is at least five or ten million dollars annually, that money could be used instead to pay for approximately ten thousand taxi rides per week for intoxicated Royal Oakies. And can't they get Stroh's locally in Royal Oak taverns anyway? Why would anyone want to go into the ghetto for it?
But the concept of a budget still seems elusive to Marie "Valley Girl" Donigan:
[3:28 on video] So... we have a limited pool of money... right? Is that what you're saying? Because we only... there's only so much money in the world? Ever? [sarcastic pause] Well obviously that's not true. If we wanted to build a new... if that was the case, then if we wanted to build a new school in Royal Oak, for instance, we'd say, ‘We cannot build another school in Royal Oak because there's... because we only have so much money.'
That sounds like something someone born during Clinton's first term might say. But Ms. Donigan was born during Eisenhower's first term. Perhaps she doesn't drink or have any personal credit cards, but like so many of her Democrat colleagues, she clearly is drunk on spending her benefactors' money -- and is sanctimonious about it.
By the way, in April, Ms. Donigan was named "Government Official of the Year" for "her efforts in transportation". Her fiscally suicidal Democrat supporters apparently believe that she is Michigan's best and brightest lawmaker.
