It may not loom very large in the grand scheme of things. But it shows the outsized career politician ego. It’s all about, “Hey, I brought you a bag of taxpayer-funded goodies, so I’m a hero, just in the mold of, say, frontiersman Daniel Boone. In fact, why don’t you go ahead and take down his name and put up my name.” Maybe that’s not what happened. Maybe the congressman wasn’t in on the deal that the highway cutting through the Eastern Kentucky mountains should lose the name of Daniel Boone and gain the name of the congressman.
All we know is that Governor Paul Patton asked the state’s transportation secretary to replace Boone’s name with the congressman’s name. And the transportation secretary played along. But the congressman sure as heck could have said, “No! Don’t do this! You’re a better man than I am, Daniel Boone!” The congressman Republican Hal Rodgers of Somerset has represented his district for over 20 years. He helped funnel federal funding to Kentucky so that the state could eliminate tolls at that Daniel Boone highway.
Great, now all of America gets to pay for that road instead of just the people who drive on it. So the decision was made to reward the porkbarreler who got the subsidy by dropping the name of the man whose life and legend have filled countless volumes. And installing the name of the congressman. “It’s a tremendous honor to have this parkway named after me,” Rogers said. “I am humbled.” Not humble enough.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.