McCain Supported a Bill to Bolster Levees and Flood Control Before He Was Against It

According to a CNN report "Obama hits McCain on help for cities, levees ",McCain cosponsored an amendment to the 2007 Water Resources Development Act which was created to fund improvements in Levees and Flood Control programs, The Everglades (which we have heard for years was a massive flood risk because of misused of the waterways of the area.  Think of the wetlands that should have protected New Orleans from Katrina, but had been chopped up, some say by by oil drilling, others -- mostly oil company backers -- by a South American rodent, Nutria, that had been transplanted to the area) and other environmental projects.

John McCain (R AZ), claims that he and Russ Feingold (D WI), and Claire McCaskill (D MO) co-sponsored an amendment to the bill to make sure that levees were fixed first.   It turns out that once again McCain is confused on the basic facts dealing with his past or proposed governance. Senator McCaskill voted for the amendment, but did not co-sponsor it. 

Unfortunately, McCain can't seem to remember what is true about some very important situations and he's also opposed to getting a little help.  Apparently he 'knows' he's right.  This was one case where either his staff (who often find close jobs in an administration if their guy wins) or McCain knocked down the idea of looking it up and getting the facts straight.

Another thing John McCain didn't remember or bother to look up is that even most of the levees were either certified or rebuilt after 1993 and supposedly would keep the Mississippi within it's bounds.  These were levees that had all recommended changes.   More levee work on Mississippi in the areas currently being flooded was not deemed as necessary.

Still, what the Feingold amendment S.A. 1086 to H.R. 1495 (110th Congress) actually would have done is to create an 8 member commission to prioritize infrastructure projects that were specified by the larger bill, not actually build levees.  Interesting, that eight.  Usually commissions are filled with odd numbers, aren't they?  That's to give a majority to one side or the other.  Any project can easily be stopped with an even number by voting along party lines. 

The commission (from a Thomas.loc search and therefore unlinkable):

(A) COMPOSITION.--The Commission shall be composed of 8 members, of whom--

    (i) 2 members shall be appointed by the President;

    (ii) 2 members shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;

    (iii) 1 member shall be appointed by the minority leader of the House of Representatives;

    (iv) 2 members shall be appointed by the majority leader of the Senate; and

    (v) 1 member shall be appointed by the minority leader of the Senate.

Suddenly the minority in Congress gets veto power by working with the president over any of the projects.

And that great 'bipartisan' sponsored admendment?  

SA 1086. Mr. FEINGOLD (for himself, Mr. McCain, Mr. Coburn, Mr. Carper, Mr. Gregg, Mr. Sununu, and Mr. DeMint) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 1495,

Only Feingold and Carper (2 out of 7) were Democratic Senators.  That is hardly bipartisan.  True bipartisan proposals usually have up to a quarter of the chamber submitting their names as cosponsors because they really really like it.

I think we have to give McCain's assertions a vote of 'no confidence'.  He's just hitting too wide off the truth target though he seems to be able to hit the self serving one with high accuracy. 

McCain's self serving remolding of facts and history is looking less like shooting from the hip 'straight talk' and more like lawyeresque verbal manipulation in good old boy language.  That development is very disturbing in the light of the same trick having been used by the Bush administration for the last 7.5 years. 

Even if McCain thinks he remembers something, he'd better have his aides check out the easily available record on that.  It becomes a matter of judgment if a person is constantly making mistakes on history orfacts of which he or she should be in full command if that person wants to be commander in chief.

And to finish my point.  Apparently McCain was for the measure when he was voting for an amendment to it.  But he ended not supporting it by the end (read linked article for details) 

tags: john mccain  barack  obama  levees  midwest flood  

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