Today, McCain embarked from New York City on a boating jaunt down the East River, and in preparation for his ride, Democrats have posted a tongue-in-cheek tourist's map to mark all the sites along the way that McCain has opposed funding: the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York ports, et cetera. His party's latest move to cut New York City's funding, however, got left off the list.
This week as Blue Dogs were busily digging in their heels against veterans' benefits, Senate Republicans quietly lined up to block a vote that would've provided New York City with the last of the President's pledged September-11th recovery aid: $1.7 billion to build a rail-link between Ground Zero and the Kennedy Airport in Queens.
Meanwhile, far from being abashed, Republican senators in fact defended the vote, with Sen. Judd Gregg going so far as to call the proposed rail a "train to nowhere" -- an apparent reference to Rep. Don Young's notorious $941-million attempt to build an Alaskan bridge to an island of 8,000 people. Not content to dismiss Ground Zero alone, he went still further to attack New Yorkers as a whole: "This is a situation where the folks from New York, who are good and decent people, have decided to raid the Federal Treasury to get some money to pay for something in a very questionable way."
Despite his anti-earmark reputation, McCain's already expressed a comfort with the notion that earmarks come in varying ethical stripes and colors. This week's latest gambit only helps flesh out the contours of the GOP's double standard still further. That is, earmarked military aid for countries like Israel and Egypt, good, earmarked 9/11 recovery aid for the people of New York City, bad.
--Te-Ping Chen
