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Kanjorski comments on bridge collapse spark fierce backlash
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| Parent(s) |
Candidate
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| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Aug 11, 2007 03:56am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, August 10, 2007 09:55:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Scranton Times-Tribune article.
An excerpt...
"At least seven people died, and he voted for the aid.
But that didn’t stop U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski from suggesting Minnesota is trying to “screw” the rest of the country out of federal funding for its collapsed Interstate bridge, generating a firestorm among political bloggers.
Comments the Nanticoke Democrat made Tuesday at a regional economic forum at the University of Scranton were posted on political Web logs, or “blogs,” touching off the controversy.
“His comments are grossly inappropriate. He needs to apologize to the victims’ families for his rude comments,” a contributor wrote on one Web site.
During his remarks, Mr. Kanjorski noted Congress last weekend approved $250 million for Minneapolis’s recovery and to rebuild the bridge, waiving the $100 million federal limit for emergency relief funds to individual states.
He characterized the approval as a revenue grab and said Minnesota elected officials were “taking all they could get” from the federal government.
Mr. Kanjorski, who had voted for the special outlay, called the approval a “knee-jerk reaction” and said Congress needs to cover “legitimate expenses” and “get off this charge-account mentality.”
He was en route to New Mexico on Thursday and could not be reached. But Karen Feather, his chief of staff, said, “The congressman regrets his language. ... He said, ‘I should have used different words.’”
Mr. Kanjorski was frustrated the estimate for bridge and infrastructure work related to the tragedy ballooned from $100 million to $250 million, Ms. Feather said.
At the forum, Mr. Kanjorski said: “They discovered they were going to get all the money from the federal government and they were taking all they could get” and used the tragedy “to screw us.”
Bloggers have jumped all over the longtime Congressman.
“Has the Congressman got both oars in the water? Now I know why th |
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