Baird sells us out on another earmark: The Columbian is positively giddy

So, Brian Baird and this fishwrapper are just all bubbly about how they screwed the taxpayers with millions in earmarks.

The article makes me want to blow chunks... and here's a few well chosen words in response to the headline:

Baird is proud of ‘righteous earmark’

It's at LEAST as "righteous" as the millions he wasted on the "Boat that nobody wanted" in return for the $14,277 in campaign contributions Baird got from Guardian Marine in return for shilling out $17.65 million in THOSE earmarks.

It seems that Mr. Baird is simply incapable of grasping the enormity of his stupidity and the colossal waste of money he's so proud of.

"Bash" this earmark? I don't need Jindal or anyone else to "bash" this earmark when I can beat hell out of it all by myself.

Being in the pocket of the Downtown Vancouver Mafia is nothing to be proud of, Mr. Baird. Cementing your alliances with corruption isn't worthy of a press release, Mr. Baird. This slobbering coverage from this rag because they're all about jacking up their property values using taxpayer dollars isn't the thing that town hall meetings should focus on, Mr. Baird.

At the end of the day, you helped the empty suit to bury this economy in yet additional TRILLIONS of dollars of debt with your pork-laden garbage.

And that's nothing to be proud of, Mr. Baird.

See? It was easy. And Gov. Jindal didn't even need to break a sweat.

Your corruption and that of this newspaper are despicable, Mr. Baird.

Baird stands behind the earmarks. "We didn't just say, 'Oh, a company in our district wants an earmark — let's get it for them.' We looked at the mission, we looked at the history of the boat, and we looked at the alternatives out there," he said. "And I think that's pretty good work, frankly."

...And Rep. Baird still wants to get patrol boats like Guardian Marine's (That the Navy can't use and like the ones we ALREADY own that are tied up at a dock in Seattle's Portage Bay (except for yearly maintenance runs)) into Coast Guard hands. During a congressional hearing earlier this year, Baird asked an admiral if they could "chat" about "other alternatives that are available on the marketplace" to the Coast Guard's slower, 87-foot patrol boats.

"Might we do that?" Baird asked.

"Happy to do that, sir," the admiral replied.

Yeah. It's just coincidence that these people gave you $15,000 for your campaign... right, Brian?

No, dammit. I will condemn this earmark and the corruption it speaks to and the debt it assigns with all of my might.

Mr. Baird, you and this democrat lackey newspaper ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Poster by Omahkohkiaayo I'poyi does an amazing job of calling Baird's perfidy out. It's worthy of reproduction here, and I do it here in it's entirety:

by Omahkohkiaayo I'poyi : 3/14/09 9:45am - Report Abuse

It is called "triangulation". The apex of the triangle stands "above" the "left" or "right" ends of the base. Give a little to the "left" on their most important issues, they will hold their noses, vote for you, even after what you feed to the "right". Same thing on the "right": feed them a little on their pet issues, they will vote for you, often as the "lesser of evils" (when what we often have is the evil of lessers) while they hold their noses for what you give to the "left". All the while you appear not even "centrist", but at some imperial and etherial level above it all. Of course what you "give" to the left, right and center is what is not really yours to "give" especially when there is nothing to give without robbing future generations of a chance your generation had: taxpayer dollars going where they are most needed and fiscal solvency. This concept was articulated by Dick Morris, a political operative, who worked mostly the Republican side but also worked for Dems like Clinton as well. But blaming these politicians can be like blaming a rabid dog for biting. These types, as Plato noted in his famous dictum "Those who seek power are invariably the least fit to hold and wield it", are typically narcissists, megalomaniacs, manipulators and many are outright psychopaths (see the book "Snakes in Suits When Psychopaths Go to Work" by Paul Babiak and Robert Hare) So it is up to us to stop trading away our liberty and tax dollars by supporting those who cynically pander to our baser instincts, selfishness, myopia and narrow single-issue or identity politics. We are also to blame. It is time to relentlessly out them, drag them out of the subterranean power cliques they operate through, and with hard-core and rigorous facts, the law, and contradictions in their own rhetoric expose them to the accountability they eschew. I have been up close with these types and they are nothing and cannot debate when pressed; that is why they hide and every two years come around counting on our short memories.

by Omahkohkiaayo I'poyi : 3/14/09 10:00am - Report Abuse

Here is an article in the Seattle Times called "The Favor Factory" with links to look up any Congressperson and see for any given year, how much in earmarks they got, to whom the earmarks went, and from whom they got campaign contributions. You will see an amazing correspondence between who gave and who got (sometimes literally within days of getting an earmark a campaign contribution given and vice versa). And every one of these types will look straight into the camera and say "But I assure you than in my mind there was no connection between the campaign contribution and the earmark--previous or subsequent--for the person who gave it." What else are they going to say? That does not settle it and it shows their own arrogance and contempt for the trust placed with them that that is all they have to say. Earmarks are about escaping transparency, scrutiny, accountability and the normal appropriations processes mandated by the U.S. Constitution. There is no way around it as President Obama himself noted. Now go check out Mr. Baird or whomever you wish. By the way, in the U.S. Constitution, only two crimes are explicitly mentioned as "High Crimes and Misdemeanors": Treason and Bribery.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008257178_favorfactory12.html

by Omahkohkiaayo I'poyi : 3/14/09 10:07am - Report Abuse

Mr. Baird's record on earmarks for 2008:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/favorfactory/favorfactory_2008/lawmaker.php?id=H6WA03135

Baird, Brian N.

(House, D-WA) Totals
2008 Defense earmarks: $13,600,000
2003-08 Campaign contributions from earmark recipients: $68,800

Campaign contributions from earmark recipients
Recipient Amount
Gencorp, Inc. (HQ) $2,000
General Electric Co. (HQ) $11,000
Caterpillar, Inc. (HQ) $2,000
Battelle Memorial Institute, Inc. (HQ) $500
Oregon Iron Works, Inc. $17,500
Boeing Co. (HQ) $9,500
Accenture, Inc. (HQ) $500
Northrop Grumman Corp. (HQ) $1,000
Cassidy & Associates $500
SILVER EAGLE MANUFACTURING CO $2,000
Outdoor Research, Inc. $2,000
CASCADE DESIGNS, Inc. $4,000
Armor Systems International, Inc. $2,000
Honeywell International, Inc. (HQ) $5,000
Rice University $250
Nlight Photonics Corp. $6,550
Lockheed Martin Corp. (HQ) $2,000
Insitu, Inc. (HQ) $500

Has anyone ever heard of "conflict of interest" and recusing oneself from a vote in which one has even the appearance of one as a matter of honor?

Unlike our local waste of paper, the information provided above tells the REAL story about the despicable use of earmarks... earmarks the Empty Suit repeatedly campaigned AGAINST.

Email | Print |

Local News

Baird is proud of ‘righteous earmark’

Friday, March 13 | 11:23 p.m.

BY JEFFREY MIZE
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Twist Architecture and Design Redevelopment of the former Boise Cascade site could include a series of high-rise buildings with hotels, condos, offices, hotels, shops and restaurants, along with parks and trails.

Congressman Brian Baird had finished the polite introductions and obligatory thanks.

Then, the Vancouver Democrat moved closer to a clay model depicting the high-rise waterfront community that Gramor Development and its local investors want to build on the Columbia River waterfront.

"The infrastructure money leverages so much more," Baird told Gramor President Barry Cain late Friday morning as he examined the model. "They’re not building waterfront. They’re not building Columbia Rivers anywhere."

The waterfront project, proposed for a barren former industrial site west of the Interstate 5 Bridge, will benefit from two federal contributions: $2.5 million in stimulus money and another $3.09 million from the 2009 spending bill President Barack Obama signed this week.

"Everyone bashes us for earmarks," Baird said, standing where a cluster of office buildings, condominiums, apartments, stores and restaurants could pop up in the next 10 to 15 years. "This is a righteous earmark. You get a 30-to-1 return on our investment. Bash us for that earmark, Bobby Jindal."

Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, delivered the GOP’s response to Obama’s Feb. 24 joint address before Congress and criticized federal officials for what he called an "eruption of spending in Washington, D.C."

As for the 30-to-1 figure, Baird used an estimate developed by the city of Vancouver of how much every public dollar — city, state and federal — spent on infrastructure will return in higher tax revenues.

Baird attended a Friday gathering with representatives of Gramor and its investors, along with city, Port of Vancouver and Clark County representatives, to show his support for the project and boost its community standing. A push pin in the clay model indicated where organizers had set a small tent, chairs and podium for the event.

More: