Arrogance II
Bush to Specter: Drop Dead
If ever there was a perfect illustration of the Bush administration's attitude toward Congress, it came precisely one hour, six minutes and 20 seconds into Monday's Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on mine safety.
The administration's two top mine safety officials had finished testifying, but Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) asked them to stick around for an extra hour in case other questions came up -- as is the panel's custom. Sorry, said David G. Dye, the acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. He and Ray McKinney, the federal administrator of coal mine safety, had too much real work to do to sit around listening to a group of pesky senators. A rescue team was still in the Sago Mine, Dye said, and a mine fire was burning in Colorado.
"We were happy to prepare for the hearing but we really need to get back," Dye announced. "We've got some really pressing matters."
Specter, a man who doesn't take well to real or perceived slights and who, more to the point, writes the mine agency's budget, dryly noted that the assembled senators also had some "pressing matters" on their plates. "So we don't think we're imposing too much to keep you here for another hour," he said. At which point the administration officials walked out a back door of the hearing room.
Do you think Specter is going to take this lying down?
So do I.
.
If ever there was a perfect illustration of the Bush administration's attitude toward Congress, it came precisely one hour, six minutes and 20 seconds into Monday's Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on mine safety.
The administration's two top mine safety officials had finished testifying, but Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) asked them to stick around for an extra hour in case other questions came up -- as is the panel's custom. Sorry, said David G. Dye, the acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. He and Ray McKinney, the federal administrator of coal mine safety, had too much real work to do to sit around listening to a group of pesky senators. A rescue team was still in the Sago Mine, Dye said, and a mine fire was burning in Colorado.
"We were happy to prepare for the hearing but we really need to get back," Dye announced. "We've got some really pressing matters."
Specter, a man who doesn't take well to real or perceived slights and who, more to the point, writes the mine agency's budget, dryly noted that the assembled senators also had some "pressing matters" on their plates. "So we don't think we're imposing too much to keep you here for another hour," he said. At which point the administration officials walked out a back door of the hearing room.
Do you think Specter is going to take this lying down?
So do I.
.
posted by spork_incident at Wednesday, January 25, 2006
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