Blackhawk Tech Got The Janesville Veto

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A big hat-tip to Rep. Tammy Baldwin and Sen. Herb Kohl for standing up for the recently unemployed in and around Janesville by providing federal funding for job training and placement services at Blackhawk Technical College.

JS online Excerpt:
"There is an urgent need to help GM's former employees get back on their feet. Families are struggling and the whole community has been stung by its largest employer pulling up stakes. This desperately needed investment will partner Blackhawk Technical College and former Janesville GM employees to retrain these skilled workers and help put more people back to work."

The above quote was not from Paul Ryan or Sen. Russ Feingold. Instead, those were the words of Sen. Herb Kohl who stood up for the people of Janesville when he inserted that earmark. What an embarrassment for Feingold, who only recently was touting new expansive executive branch earmark powers with Rep. Paul Ryan under the moniker the "Janesville Veto."

Both Ryan and Feingold voted "Nay" on the Omnibus, but that's not the issue here. Most supporters understand the vote when they understand their congressman or senator. What's important is Kohl and Baldwin were the only ones willing to attach their name to the earmark. Kohl could have disagreed with the total Omnibus package and still vote against it, but he chose to vote for it.

Paul Ryan needn't explain his position on the Blackhawk Tech earmark - nobody cares. But Feingold? He has repeatedly said he and Ryan are friends. That's cool. No one has ever implied anything's wrong with that. Friendship is a wonderful thing. However, when politicians create the appearance that friendship (cronyism) carries more weight than the needs of the people, it becomes an embarrassment to the congressional district and state they represent.

Whether Feingold thinks the folks in Janesville deserve an explanation on whether the $950,000 earmark is wasteful spending or a bad investment - is up to him. Was the Senator willing to shut down the educational earmark during these hard economic times just to prove a point about earmark reform? Where does he stand? Is it with Ryan or with the people?