A yelly cabinet official jousted briefly with a yelly member of Kansas City's electronic press corps on Wednesday.
The event: The presentation of a novelty check. The location: The lovely Public School Retirement System building at 4600 Paseo Boulevard. The combatants: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and KMBC's Mike Mahoney.
LaHood was in town to deliver a $50 million Department of Transportation grant. The money will be used for projects inside the Green Impact Zone in Kansas City and to improve transit along State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, and Metcalf Avenue and Shawnee Mission Parkway in Johnson County.
The room was packed with press. Mahoney, as he often does, got in the first question. He asked LaHood to explain the high rate of unemployment that has persisted in a time of massive federal spending.
LaHood said employment tends to lag behind other signs of recovery, and he suggested that joblessness would be far worse if Congress had not approved the stimulus plan.
LaHood wanted to move on. Mahoney tried to get in a follow-up. Lahood became annoyed.
"You're not gonna fillabuster here," the cabinet official snapped, taking the same aggressive tone that Mahoney had used.
LaHood then took a question from a less Sam Donaldson-esque member of the local press.
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i was there too and eric is right - michael was being a jerk. if i'd been lahood i'd have said much of what he did, and then shot back at mahoney, "and what do you think the unemployment rate would have been without the stimulus?"
This is fromthe same guy who turned his tale between his legs and ran after he said "I would not drive them" refering to Toyata's recall. Then recanted after Toyata got upset. What the hell is wrong with the Transportation secretary telling people not to drive defecctive cars. And the he shows some back bone with a local reporter? Stand up to business if this adminstration is for the little guy like they lamely claim.
I was there and will say that Mahoney was being asshole. The audience was kinda taken about by his tone and demeanor.
Also, it was ironic that the KMBC-TV van parked on the sidewalk and blocked pedestrian access at the unveiling of a program that will include significant improvements to pedestrian transportation.
http://img390.yfrog.com/i/98qr...
Today the KMBC crew was kinda douchebaggy all around.
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