The official recalled a trip that former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), former Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) took a few years ago to Pakistan.
“When the senators went to Kabul on a military plane, the three spouses of Frist, DeWine and Coleman had a separate C-120 take them to Bahrain to take a windshield tour of the city and to shop,” the official said.
This leads to a couple of obvious questions:
1) Did the government pick up the full cost of the shopping trip to Bahrain?
2) If so, how much did it cost?
I’ve placed a call to Senator Coleman’s Washington Press Office and will update this story as soon as I hear back from them.
Norm was with his “wife”? Did any of the Senators take a long and unexpected bathroom break during flight transfers? Or was there just some wide stances taken?
Ignoramus Magnus sounds like he’s really worried that he might have missed out on some hot bathroom action.
================== To the point:
We shouldn’t be footing the travel bill for the spouses of our elected rep’s under any circumstances. Certianly not for shopping binges.
Shiftee -
You seem to have a lot of time to blog, I see you everywhere from MDE to Lloydetta. Your responses are similar to the attitudes presented by chronic alcoholics. Do you need a meeting schedule or something?
Glad to see you oppose goverment-funded shopping binges, Swiftee. But lets get back to the “wide stance” issue. What is your stance on the wide stance?
BTW, here is some useful information from Slate.com:
“Is it wise to use a “wide stance” when you go to the bathroom?
No. When you’re sitting on the toilet, spreading your feet and leaning forward tightens the levator ani muscles that control defecation. If you’re having trouble passing stools, you should take the opposite of a wide stance, and lean back. Doctors recommend this technique to relax the bowel muscles.”
http://www.slate.com/id/2173033/nav/tap3/
It’s all pretty wasteful. I bet we spent at least $50k just getting Bush to Norm’s fundraiser. Again, the system treats taxpayers like an external entity. Our tax dollars go explicitly to Coleman’s reelection fund.
Hey guys what do you do when you’re working on a story and the State Rep’s office refuses to respond to your requests for, say, office meeting times with certain individuals?
Minneapolitics:
This is something that crosses political lines, you cam complain about it now because a Republican is president, Clinton did it, the next president will do it. Yes it wasteful, but you are just plain ignorant and not a very informed observer of politics if you are not aware that even if the president couples an official event in with a political event that the candidate/party/organization has to foot a huge chunk of the bill for the presidents travel and security. If I remember correctly, when he came for Bachmann last year, her campaign had to pay something like $40,000, and that was with an official event.
Minnepolitics:
RE:
what do you do when you’re working on a story and the State Rep’s office refuses to respond to your requests for, say, office meeting times with certain individuals?
Why should an elected official facilitate meetings to do research for your story? Do you think that is a good use of tax dollars?
GOPGAL: I don’t care what political party it is.
Purple BLOG DOG: I don’t want to meet with them. You misread my comment. They (the state rep’s office) are refusing to give me times they met with individuals (union reps).
And seriously, stop coming at me with this partisan crap. Just because I endorse Obama for the democratic primary means nothing. I endorsed Ron Paul for the republican primary. SHEEESH
Isn’t the real question only hinted at in the comments above? Who was Senator Coleman traveling with?
He traveled with Col. Mustard, to the library, with the candlestick
Dan wonders: “What is your stance on the wide stance?”
I think that if the “wide stance” were to become popular, we’d have to get used to seeing Democrat brains in the public crappers since they would often fall out.
Public bathrooms are already bad enough whithout having to deal with an added mess, so I guess I’m against it…
Swiftee,
You sound like you’ve had a wide stance for years.
A wide stance and an intimate knowledge of all the nasty, naughty things that happen in public bathrooms.