Getting "Railed" By Mikey

I think that sometimes it must be nice to live in Mike Fitzpatrick’s universe (though, if I found myself in such a bizarre place, I’m sure I’d run screaming for the exit as soon as I could).

It must be a place where words and talking points are actual accomplishments in an of themselves without requiring action or anything approximating actual constituent service (such as his plan, based on a DRBC recommendation, to ask New York City to lower its reservoirs to 85 percent capacity that, in a best-case scenario, would reduce the amount of water that could flood homes in Bucks County along the Delaware River by about one inch, or his neat idea to ask for a plan for the Iraq War – I didn’t say “new” plan since that would assume that we actually had one to begin with – from this entity known as the Iraq Study Group).

See, to Mikey, that means that he’s actually doing his job. Just get face time with the media, lob a typically snarky quote out there against your opposition, and let the Bucks County Courier Times write another editorial about how great you are because you’re “one of us.”

(Oh, and by the way, on the Foley matter, Mikey shows valiant leadership again by calling for “a hard investigation of the facts” without either signing a letter of support for Denny Hastert or calling for his resignation as Patrick has…ladies and gentlemen, we deserve better than this.)

Where am I going with this? I’m glad you asked.

The Courier Times ran a news story today (link here) about Patrick Murphy’s press conference with Tim Roemer at the Woodbourne train station in Middletown Township, PA (Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, was a member of the 9/11 Commission). Both decried the fact that nothing has been done to protect the regional rail lines in this area or other means of mass transit.

Enter Mikey.

“Once again Pat Murphy is following my lead when it comes to securing our nation’s transit systems,” he said according to the news story. “Rail transit security has been one of my top priorities in Congress.”

But as noted in the previous paragraph…

“Congress has not voted on (something called the Railroad Security and Public Awareness Act of 2005; the paper states that Mikey co-founded the House Passenger Rail Caucus), which was referred to the House Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cyber security a year ago.”

So you see, “Pat,” Mikey has done something. He referred the bill from his subcommittee to his party leadership running the House.

Ta-daah!

Well, suppose one day (God forbid), someone leaves a suitcase in one of the R3 passenger cars during the morning or evening rush hours full of explosives, and it is detonated as the express trains are passing through with the maximum passenger capacity.

I drive by the Middletown Township train station regularly. It is a huge facility.

In that awful event, it is highly likely that lots of people would be killed or wounded.

And nobody would give a damn whether or not Mikey’s bill had been forwarded out of a subcommittee or not.

…

I don’t have anything else to add, only that you click here and help Patrick as much as you can to rid us of this Republican pestilence.