This Washington
Republican to Kids: You Like Buses Now, But One Day You'll Drive a Car Like Me
In our roundup of legislative back-and-forths this morning (we gave "Best Repartee" to lobbyist Nick Federici for his testimony against a bill that would allow cigar bars in defiance of a voter-approved smoking ban), we neglected to mention Rep. Jay Rodne's (R-5) snippy response to a group of fresh-faced UW students---one of them from Rodne's Fifth District---who testified in the house transportation committee in favor of emergency funding for King County Metro.
Rodne's response (Most Condescending Repartee?) to the students' earnest testimony: "It's always good to see my friends in the Fifth District Democrats. Thanks for coming down. I'm really glad that you're going to school, and someday, you're going to get a job, and you're going to want a vehicle to get you to that job on time."
(Irony alert: One reason buses don't run on time, or frequently, in Rodne's district, which includes Maple Valley and North Bend, is because of cuts that have made Metro scale back service on its less-used routes---a problem that will only be made worse by the budget shortfall the emergency funding bill is designed to address).
Rodne (obviously) opposes the Metro legislation, which he said would "penalize the people who drive cars to respond to a failure of [Metro] management to keep labor costs in check."
UPDATE: A reader alerted me to this graph, which shows that the number of teenagers with driver licenses is in steady decline, with just 77 percent of American teens getting a license by the time they're 19 (compared to 92 percent in 1978). To which I say: Great. Teenagers shouldn't be driving anyway .
Rodne's response (Most Condescending Repartee?) to the students' earnest testimony: "It's always good to see my friends in the Fifth District Democrats. Thanks for coming down. I'm really glad that you're going to school, and someday, you're going to get a job, and you're going to want a vehicle to get you to that job on time."
(Irony alert: One reason buses don't run on time, or frequently, in Rodne's district, which includes Maple Valley and North Bend, is because of cuts that have made Metro scale back service on its less-used routes---a problem that will only be made worse by the budget shortfall the emergency funding bill is designed to address).
Rodne (obviously) opposes the Metro legislation, which he said would "penalize the people who drive cars to respond to a failure of [Metro] management to keep labor costs in check."
UPDATE: A reader alerted me to this graph, which shows that the number of teenagers with driver licenses is in steady decline, with just 77 percent of American teens getting a license by the time they're 19 (compared to 92 percent in 1978). To which I say: Great. Teenagers shouldn't be driving anyway .
