Reichert ticks off GOP leadership

The Seattle Times had an interesting article this morning, entitled, "Reichert goes to bat for police, ticks off own party".

Seems the Sheriff-turned-Congressman made the horrible mistake of asking more money for COPS - a Clinton administration program that gave out federal funding for better community policing:

Rep. Dave Reichert broke with Republican leaders in Congress yesterday, proposing to restore $78 million to a federal program that helped King County hire dozens of deputies when he was sheriff.

The freshman Republican from Auburn lost badly in his attempt to amend the U.S. Justice Department appropriations bill — and antagonized one of the more important Republicans in the House in the process.

And the powerful Republican that Reichert ticked off is...

...Frank Wolf, a longtime GOP representative from Northern Virginia who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department budget.

During a floor debate yesterday, Wolf yelled at times and denounced Reichert's proposal for shifting money from federal law enforcement to COPS. Wolf almost accused Reichert himself of being willing to allow terrorist groups and drug gangs to run rampant across America.

"There could be, and probably is, al-Qaida sleeper cells operating in the U.S.," he snapped. "This is a bad amendment."

Why do GOP leaders have such a temper problem? Why is it that GOP leaders can't acknowledge anything but "progress" in Iraq, and why are GOP leaders so obsessed with trying to save people whose brains are dead, and have zero chance of recovering, from dying?

Of course, the article gets better:

After Reichert's loss, the House approved an amendment by Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, to give $10 million to COPS. Reichert said a senior congressman told him why Baird succeeded where Reichert failed: He asked for only $10 million, it was specifically directed at meth abuse and the money would come from the Census Bureau.

Reichert said he was told: "Nobody cares about the Census Bureau."

It pays to have some experience in Congress. Nevertheless, we're eagerly working towards the day when the Democrats regain control of Congress and this long national DeLay & Frist nightmare comes to an end.

UPDATE: Fellow blogger CoolAqua says: "Dave Reichert voted along with Tom Delay against the COPs program about 5 weeks ago. Now he's trying to cover up for it by saying he's fighting to restore funds. If he didn't help kill the program, he woldn't need to fight to restore funds. The roll call vote where he voted against the COPS program is posted at my blog..."

Well, well. How convenient of the Seattle Times reporter Ms. Mundy to overlook that fact. This is why blogging is so integral to the survival of our democracy. We're the ones who are watching the media.