The GOP spin machine cheers Rep. Kristi Noem for getting the Water Resources Reform and Redevelopment Act to tell the Army Corps of Engineers to give better flood warnings to Marion Michael Rounds, Dan Lederman, and other rich Republicans who built in the Missouri River flood plain. Yay.
But you know what the real meat and potatoes of the WRRRA is? Eight billion dollars' worth of water projects that sailed through a suddenly, happily bipartisan House. Real dollars for constituents to break gridlock... but out of that $8 billion, Rep. Kristi Noem could figure out how to line up a measly $16 million that might have helped her home folks get hooked up to the Lewis and Clark water system.
Did we ever hear complaints like this about Stephanie Herseth Sandlin? Sure, folks found reasons to disagree with the things SHS did, but she got stuff done in Congress. Rep. Noem meanwhile fails to produce any concrete achievements for South Dakota.
So, if I use Noem's logic, adding $8 Billion, 16 Million of that is going to South Dakota, to the national debt is okay.
I'm sure she'll find a fix so that this financial burden isn't passed on to her children.
Find reasons to dislike Herseth-Sandlin's actions? I didn't have to look hard. She was obstructionist and more loyal to her BlueDogs than to anyone else. I don't find Noem all that different.
What's an independent voter to do with choices like these two?
Really, Jessie? (That's an honest question, not Seth and Amy snark!) When did SHS ever play the obstructionist that Noem does? Didn't SHS get a lot more done? I can certainly rattle off SHS no-votes that I didn't like (PPACA, credit card reform, cap-and-trade... though two of those three still passed over her objection), but wasn't SHS better at working with both parties to get things done? And didn't she spend much less time posturing on TV and going on fake crusades like the farm dust issue?
Cory, your memory of SHS's performance in office is probably better than mine. I'll give you that one. But her no votes on critical issues, against what her own party was trying to accomplish, so outraged me that I swore I'd never cast my vote for her again. So for SHS, the results added up to outrage and some work done.
For Noem, I never expected her to vote for reasonable and progressive legislation, therefore no outrage on that front. I reserved my dwindling outrage for her paltry efforts to simulate actual work in Washington.
In my book, it's a wash. I dislike both of them heartily.
I appreciate your efforts to make me account for my one a.m. thoughts.
No problem, Jessie. I crave these alternative views to make sure I'm not going off in the wrong direction. It's interesting that our grief with both women lies in their acting like Republicans.
Noem is still a whole nother level of failure as a Congresswoman. She's not getting anything done. Even when SHS torqued us both off with bad votes, she was still hustling around getting the Farm Bill done and taking care of South Dakota. She sure as heck never voted to shut down the government and crash the global economy or issue the sort of baloney excuses that Noem does. I've heard others say that Noem doesn't even constituent services right. SHS hustled for our state. Noem is simply hustling our state.
Now try to get some sleep at 1 a.m. tonight! :-)
SHS recruited college Young Democrats for her first race claiming she would support loan and grant programs. Then either voted against them or failed to work for them. She ended up with her next campaign almost without actual South Dakotans working for her. She was better than is Noem, but Noem would not be in if SHS had not alienated her best supporters with her blue dog crap.
You are correct Douglas Wiken. I still have a Virginia sweatshirt that one of those young democrats who stayed here left me. I also have the fond memories of the FBI's visit to my home as well inquiring about one of the students and there work with the get out the vote. Fun times to visit with those guys, what a bunch of characters, the laughs never end.