John Thune: The DM&E's "ventriloquist’s dummy"
Ken Curley’s Column
Brookings Register
December 15, 2006
I’m thinking about taking up a collection for Kevin Schieffer.
If we get enough money, we can buy him a new ventriloquist’s dummy, and then we can put John Thune to work elsewhere.
Not a very respectful way to talk about the state’s junior senator?
Probably not.
But Thune isn’t showing much respect for his constituents these days, either.
I, for one, am getting awfully tired of Thune dissing the residents [of] Brookings and anybody else who wants to protect their community from being ravaged by the DM&E.
A couple of weeks back, when Transportation Secretary Mary Peters visited South Dakota and Minnesota to get a personal perspective on the issues, Thune encouraged Peters to decide on the project based on its merits, and not on emotion and politics.
Fair enough. But then he went on to stick the knife in once again.
He advised Peters, he later told reporters, “Don’t make this based on who’s making the most noise, or emotion surrounding it.”
In other words, don’t listen to those sissies in Brookings and at the Mayo Clinic. They’re just being hysterical because their homes and hospital are going to be a stone’s throw—make that a chunk of coal’s throw—from a 40 mile-an-hour, 100-car, four-locomotive train hurtling down two skinny steel rails.
Thirty-four times a day.
I have said in the past, and I’ll say it one more time: I am not against the DM&E expansion project. What I am against is that shaky, $2.3 billion federal loan DM&E lobbyist John Thune was able to set up for his buddies, and the utter disregard by Schieffer and Thune and Rounds and other political leaders for the consequences this project could have on Brookings.
Wasn’t it interesting to read this week that Kevin Schieffer met with Pierre Mayor Dennis Eisnach and reaffirmed his commitment to give the state’s capital $10 million for a bypass to keep the coal trains out of the city?
What? Ten million bucks for Pierre and bupkis for Brookings and Rochester? Could that be because Brookings and Rochester citizens had the temerity to question He Who Must Be Obeyed? Don’t tell me there’s not some godly retribution going on here!
And that’s because former Brookings City Manager Alan Lanning dropped the ball, big time, in dealing with DM&E. Lanning’s and the mayor and council’s negotiating approach was timid—the word “servile” actually springs to mind—and they got nothing of consequence from Schieffer. The council was rebuked, and properly so, by the citizens of Brookings whom they let down.
And, I’m afraid the timid approach is going to fail again, when I read this week about council members worrying that “we might ask for concessions that are unrealistic.”
Unrealistic! How about we spend some time talking about the scores of houses in Brookings whose value will be halved when those coal trains start rolling—a hit that will result in millions of dollars in property damage. Is the DM&E going to reimburse the county for the tens of thousands it will lose annually in property tax revenues? And what will be the city’s liability—a city that permitted those homes to be built—when a DM&E train dumps a tanker filled with ethanol into the Hillcrest neighborhood? And what about the snarls of traffic that will make the city’s main thoroughfares impassable much of the day? A few street-crossing barricades or even an overpass or two aren’t going to solve Brookings’ problems.
Kevin Schieffer doesn’t care.
He’s already informed us he has no intention of negotiating with us. He doesn’t need to. Oh, he may toss us a bone, but whatever, happens, beyond the federally mandated safety requirements, will be on Schieffer’s terms.
No, you can only negotiate from a position of strength. In Minnesota, Sen. Norm Coleman, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Rep.-elect Tim Walz have thrown their collective muscle behind the City of Rochester. With their backing, and with Mayo’s Big Money, Rochester stands a chance of beating Schieffer or at least bringing him to the bargaining table.
Brookings has no such allies, but we do have a story to tell, and we have 18,000 citizens who will be affected by this drive-by rail hit. Unless we can make somebody as powerful as Schieffer believe that this community will suffer irreparable damage under the current plans, the future is none too bright. Where that ally is going to come from, I don’t know. Janklow, perhaps?
In the absence of representation by Thune, who has abdicated his responsibility to this chunk of South Dakota, and with the total lack of concern evidenced by Herseth, Rounds and Johnson, this community doesn’t stand a chance.
Brookings Register
December 15, 2006
I’m thinking about taking up a collection for Kevin Schieffer.
If we get enough money, we can buy him a new ventriloquist’s dummy, and then we can put John Thune to work elsewhere.
Not a very respectful way to talk about the state’s junior senator?
Probably not.
But Thune isn’t showing much respect for his constituents these days, either.
I, for one, am getting awfully tired of Thune dissing the residents [of] Brookings and anybody else who wants to protect their community from being ravaged by the DM&E.
A couple of weeks back, when Transportation Secretary Mary Peters visited South Dakota and Minnesota to get a personal perspective on the issues, Thune encouraged Peters to decide on the project based on its merits, and not on emotion and politics.
Fair enough. But then he went on to stick the knife in once again.
He advised Peters, he later told reporters, “Don’t make this based on who’s making the most noise, or emotion surrounding it.”
In other words, don’t listen to those sissies in Brookings and at the Mayo Clinic. They’re just being hysterical because their homes and hospital are going to be a stone’s throw—make that a chunk of coal’s throw—from a 40 mile-an-hour, 100-car, four-locomotive train hurtling down two skinny steel rails.
Thirty-four times a day.
I have said in the past, and I’ll say it one more time: I am not against the DM&E expansion project. What I am against is that shaky, $2.3 billion federal loan DM&E lobbyist John Thune was able to set up for his buddies, and the utter disregard by Schieffer and Thune and Rounds and other political leaders for the consequences this project could have on Brookings.
Wasn’t it interesting to read this week that Kevin Schieffer met with Pierre Mayor Dennis Eisnach and reaffirmed his commitment to give the state’s capital $10 million for a bypass to keep the coal trains out of the city?
What? Ten million bucks for Pierre and bupkis for Brookings and Rochester? Could that be because Brookings and Rochester citizens had the temerity to question He Who Must Be Obeyed? Don’t tell me there’s not some godly retribution going on here!
And that’s because former Brookings City Manager Alan Lanning dropped the ball, big time, in dealing with DM&E. Lanning’s and the mayor and council’s negotiating approach was timid—the word “servile” actually springs to mind—and they got nothing of consequence from Schieffer. The council was rebuked, and properly so, by the citizens of Brookings whom they let down.
And, I’m afraid the timid approach is going to fail again, when I read this week about council members worrying that “we might ask for concessions that are unrealistic.”
Unrealistic! How about we spend some time talking about the scores of houses in Brookings whose value will be halved when those coal trains start rolling—a hit that will result in millions of dollars in property damage. Is the DM&E going to reimburse the county for the tens of thousands it will lose annually in property tax revenues? And what will be the city’s liability—a city that permitted those homes to be built—when a DM&E train dumps a tanker filled with ethanol into the Hillcrest neighborhood? And what about the snarls of traffic that will make the city’s main thoroughfares impassable much of the day? A few street-crossing barricades or even an overpass or two aren’t going to solve Brookings’ problems.
Kevin Schieffer doesn’t care.
He’s already informed us he has no intention of negotiating with us. He doesn’t need to. Oh, he may toss us a bone, but whatever, happens, beyond the federally mandated safety requirements, will be on Schieffer’s terms.
No, you can only negotiate from a position of strength. In Minnesota, Sen. Norm Coleman, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Rep.-elect Tim Walz have thrown their collective muscle behind the City of Rochester. With their backing, and with Mayo’s Big Money, Rochester stands a chance of beating Schieffer or at least bringing him to the bargaining table.
Brookings has no such allies, but we do have a story to tell, and we have 18,000 citizens who will be affected by this drive-by rail hit. Unless we can make somebody as powerful as Schieffer believe that this community will suffer irreparable damage under the current plans, the future is none too bright. Where that ally is going to come from, I don’t know. Janklow, perhaps?
In the absence of representation by Thune, who has abdicated his responsibility to this chunk of South Dakota, and with the total lack of concern evidenced by Herseth, Rounds and Johnson, this community doesn’t stand a chance.
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