Pombo defends taxpayer-funded RV trip

[Kadie]

Posted on Thu, Feb. 09, 2006
Pombo defends taxpayer-funded RV trip
Associated PressWASHINGTON -

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo defended himself Thursday over a published report that he spent two weeks visiting national parks in a taxpayer-funded RV.

Pombo, R-Tracy, said the $4,935 cost of renting the RV was a legitimate expense because the purpose of the trip was to meet with park personnel and learn about park issues he oversees as chairman of the committee. The Tracy Press reported on the trip and its cost Thursday.

His family was along, but Pombo said he picked up their costs himself and spent his time working and meeting with park employees. He also said he initially planned to travel by charter plane, but rejected that idea as prohibitively expensive.

"Being the person that I am, I saw this as the cheapest way to possibly get in and look at these parks," Pombo said. "Most of the time, other than when I was asleep, most of the time I was there I was with parks personnel ... There was no personal travel on this trip."

snip...
In an opinion piece Pombo subsequently wrote about the trip, he said: "This August, my family and I rented an RV and set out to explore the West. We spent two weeks on vacation, stopping along the way to enjoy the splendor of many of our national parks."

more...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/13833227.htm

[stevedeshazer]

1. Let's see if I have this right

Pombo rents an RV at government expense to tour national parks to find out how he can sell then off to campaign contributors who have mining interests. The word "vacation" comes up. Pombo makes excuses about how it sounds.

That's about it.

Disbelievers need only see here that Pombo stands to profit mightily from this:

No Arctic oil drilling? How about selling parks? Pombo hopes threat will boost bid to tap refuge's resources

<snip>

Washington -- House Resources chairman Richard Pombo is circulating a draft of a bill that would sell 15 national parks and require the National Park Service to raise millions of dollars by selling the naming rights to visitors' centers and trails.

Pombo's spokesman said the proposal, written by Pombo's House Resources Committee staff, is intended only to influence lawmakers to support an item in the budget bill that would permit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

If drilling continues to be banned in the refuge, Pombo's staff argued, the government would have to sell parks as well as advertising space on park buses, trams and ferries to reach the level of revenues expected from oil leases sales in the Alaskan refuge.

While Brian Kennedy, Pombo's spokesman, said the Tracy Republican lawmaker has no plans to introduce the bill, environmental groups expressed outrage that he would even suggest selling national parks -- including the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in Danville -- to raise money for the federal Treasury.

link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/24/MNG2HETE8D1.DTL

[tularetom]

2. "Being the person that I am" jesus h christ

The person that he is is the greasiest slimiest repuke in congress with the possible exception ( and not really too possible at that) of bugman delay. Pombo has a strong primary opponent and his district is tending more Democratic, but he has money up the ass to spend on two elections as he is quite obviously beholden to the resource extraction lobby.