Coconut Road

As a follow-up to my vague reference in my column that annoyed Jon last week, I'm providing a link to that explains the Coconut Road controversy. Apparently an earmark showed up in a 2006 bill after the congress voted on the legislation, but before President Bush signed it. The earmark is for a road in Florida, but was apparently requested by Alaska Rep. Don (Bridge-to-nowhere) Young, the committee chairman. It's an interesting case. The project was not supported by the Florida congressman whose district it would affect, and it was opposed by the local community. But, it would benefit a local real estate developer and donor/fundraiser for Rep. Young. Recently the subject of investigation into this issue has come up in the Congress. It would be nice if there were more media coverage of this egregious earmark and the investigation, but there doesn't seem to be much mainstream political coverage without the word "Obama" or "Clinton" involved. Seems important to me, but what do I know? I'm sure there's some logic to talking about a candidates bowling score and ignoring a $10 million earmark.