The D.C. Metro Crash, a Senator & A Goofy Blog Post

There is a professor at one of Oklahoma's colleges who has a blog. A decidedly left-of-center blog. A couple of them, actually, in which he double posts his offerings as if that means his thoughts are twice as valuable as those of any other blog.

Today he suggests that U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn may be responsible for the D.C. Metro crash on Monday that killed nine and injured 70.

Really!

Why would he say this? Because Sen. Coburn opposed a $1.5 billion improvement project for the Metro system last year. He also criticizes Coburn for opposing federal subsidies for the Metro system.

Mind you, there is not a shred of evidence produced as yet to indicate what caused the accident. It's under investigation, but this professorial genius is ready to nail Coburn's hide to the wall.

But wait. It gets even worse.

The $1.5 billion eventually passed anyway, duly noted in his blog post, so his point -- such as it was -- is moot. Worse than moot. Goofy. Except that his real goal, obviously, is to blast Tom Coburn, to poison the electoral well if he can. This seems, at the least, irresponsible.

Elected officials are charged with many serious duties, among them the review of budgets and spending. They must weigh among competing demands, balancing need with cost with an eye to how previous monies have been spent, or misspent, and how services are managed. Perhaps the D.C. Metro Rail would be all up-to-date and modern if instead of begging for federal bailouts periodically it tried to operate profitably, like a real business.

But then people like our Oklahoma prof would not be able to say things like this:

There is much speculation about what caused the accident, but we do know that this country’s infrastructure—transportation systems, roads, bridges, etc.—needs major improvements. Coburn’s political antics and obstructionism do nothing to move the country forward. He continues to draw negative attention throughout the nation.

Spoken like a true progressive. Well, God bless him for trying, I suppose, but it sure would be nice if people like that would get out of their ivory towers and spend some time in the private sector for awhile (where results are expected). He might have more of an appreciation for the hard-earned money of taxpayers who are fed up with it being frittered away by the billions on public transportation systems that are not nearly as green or efficient as their supporters imagine.