Spreading wealth across the realm

The last I heard it cost only twenty or thirty bucks to send a wire transfer from Washington to the Heartland. Sending a cabinet critter with check in hand kicks that up to something in the four figures.

Neverttheless, let the record show that the Peoples' Republic of Iowa City yesterday welcomed a a high emissary from His Obamaness of Washington.

Now, you guys probably thought the secretary of commerce was supposed to stick around the White House and Capitol Hill, handing out xeroxed copies of the Interstate Commerce Clause in case anyone had forgotten it and thereby missed a chance to regulate something else from Pennsylvania Avenue and K Street.

Wrong. Secretary Locke had a check for us, so he flew in to personally hand most of the $30 million to Iowa City politicians for a new sewer plant.

(Attention. Smith, Winston: I know what you're crimetinking, and this is your final warning. Stop it.)

The trip had nothing to do with politics in the city which gave his Obamaness his earliest caucus momentum, in a state where Obama pal Gov. Culver is poised to lose his job to a mediocre Republican, and where some newly elected congress critters who just love Obamaism are worried about their seats.

No, Gary came to town instead of sending a wire transfer just because he likes to be close to sewer projects.

I know. It happens all the time. So what? It's still a cynical theft of your money to buy someone's vote.