Quick Shot

From today's Trib Thursday Wrap:

Records released this week show House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent nearly $3,000 in taxpayer dollars on flowers between June and October. Flowers sure are nice and purty. But should taxpayers be picking up the tab? We think not.

Perhaps, but let's look at some real reporting. From Newsweek:

On its face, three grand sounds like considerable dough, especially for something as disposable as fresh flowers. But is it really that much? Pelosi’s Capitol Hill office isn’t your average dentist’s waiting room. She has a massive setup in the Capitol with dozens and dozens of staffers. Broken up over four months, that’s really just about $750 per month, or $25 a day, which is barely the cost of lunch for two in the House cafeteria, if you skip dessert. Your Gaggler has admittedly never planned a wedding, but would venture that some bigger affairs around Washington can burn through three grand's worth of flowers in about two hours. It also merits mentioning, as Pelosi’s office does, that the Speaker holds a lot more ceremonial events than other members.

Then there's this from the Politico:

[Pelosi's] offices defended the charges, saying the Speaker’s office holds more ceremonial events with visiting dignitaries than other congressional offices. They also use a local florist, and about a third of her flower expenses this quarter were for Jack Kemp’s funeral.

So let's redo the math. If a third of the expenses were for Republican Jack Kemp's funeral, that leaves $2,000 spread out over 4 months, or $500 per month or about $17 bucks a day.

Is the Trib really wasting its time complaining about the Speaker's $17 per day flower habit when it could be circle-jerking again on Climate change?

Ooops wait, they're doing that too:

Hudson Institute scholar Dennis Avery reminds that Der Spiegel, the German magazine, tried to warn the world of climate change research fraud more than two years ago -- but nobody listened. Asks Mr. Avery, "Must we wait for the huge new energy tax to be imposed by the Congress before we take the evidence of climate fraud seriously?"

No mention of the million dollars in Scaife grants (from foundations controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife) that went to the Hudson Institute in the last 3 years:

• $220,000 in 2008 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation
• $340,000 in 2007 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation
• $200,000 in 2006 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation
• $50,000 in 2008 from the Carthage Foundation

You see, my friends, when Richard Mellon Scaife grants such a steaming pile of money for the support of a think-tank and then his editorial board touts the research from that think tank as a credible source of information, he playing both sides; creating the news and then reporting on it.

But the $17 bucks a day for Washington DC flowers is an outrage! An outrage I tell you!