On April 29, 1992, Tom DeLay stood up on the House floor and decried a 'tax-funded boondoggle' that sent freshman members of Congress to Harvard for a seminar. 'Yes,' DeLay asserted, 'the congressional freshman orientation at Harvard doesn't cost millions of dollars. But even the thousands of dollars of tax money used for this congressional boondoggle sets a bad example for new Members of Congress.' Instead, DeLay urged, 'grass-roots organizations' should conduct orientations at no cost to the American taxpayer. The organizations DeLay named were" the Coalition for America, the Council for National Policy, Free Congress Foundation, and Free the Eagle, Sarah Posner wrote February 21, 2005, for The Gadflyer.
As Billy Long embraces Washington, which was clearly the case during the first half of his freshman orientation, more Southwest Missourians are seeing through Billy Long's fed up routine. From today's Springfield News-Leader:
You know, for a "good ole boy" with no political experience, and very little education, Billy Long is catching on to a politician's ways real fast, now that he's in Washington.
I see from the article in (a recent) News-Leader, he's already plugging a Springfield Western ware store to his colleagues in D.C. You suppose he will ever have to buy another cowboy hat again? Guess you can't knock the guy, he continues to get free press from the newspaper. I just wonder if he will, when he starts to embarrass the people of southwest Missouri, (and) when he realizes just how much he's in over his head.
Ron King Springfield, MO
