Virginia has now closed the bulk of its interstate rest areas as a cost saving measure. While Bob McDonnell has offered a detailed plan on reopening them and Creigh “What’s In Your Wallet?” Deeds has offered empty platitudes with a promise to do it even faster despite having no plan, there is someone else other than Gov. Timmy! that we can now cast blame upon.
Last Friday, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf offered an amendment in Congress that would have granted Virginia a waiver to the prohibition on private businesses operating at rest stops on federal interstates that are not tolled. That amendment failed to pass in committee. Guess who one of those in opposition to that amendment was. Virginia’s own U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello. In fact, it was Perriello’s opposition to the Wolf amendment that was used to kill it.
If you thought that Perriello was thumbing his nose at his constituents on the cap and tax global warming bill, then you shouldn’t be surprised that this clown of a manchild has managed to get himself on the opposite side of an organization as innocuous as AAA.
AAA Mid Atlantic wrote Congressman Wolf (July 16):
“This issue is already resonating among the motoring public and the trucking industry. In fact, a growing number of motorists have expressed alarm about the decision to close the rest areas and to cordon off their entrances.
In our view, there is no question that the safety of motorists will be negatively impacted by the closing of rest areas in Virginia. The problem goes well beyond the need to use restroom facilities. Long haul drivers need to stop to rest, drink caffeine, change drivers, etc. If they do not have a convenient option they may drive when they are too tired to do so.
Nearly one-third of drivers (28%) say that they have nodded off or fallen asleep while driving a vehicle, according to extensive research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
It is estimated that 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year, resulting in an estimated 1,500 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses, as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In fact, NHTSA reports that twenty percent of crashes and twelve percent of near-crashes were caused by drowsy drivers.”
Filed under: Tom "Profile In Cowardice" Perriello
That doesn’t jive with this news story: http://www.nbc29.com/Global/story.asp?S=10763569
It also doesn’t jive with any basic understanding of Congress. Wolf’s Amendment was probably defeated because he’s a Republican and the Democrats are running over everything the minority party is trying to do. I find it almost impossible to believe that some random freshman had enough clout to tell the Appropriations Committee what to do.
This “random freshman” still voted against Wolf’s amendment in committee and thus against his own constituents. He may not have clout, but he still made the wrong decision and should be held accountable.
The point is, Dems were able to use a Virginian as cover for this action.
[...] for whatever reason (some predict it was opposition from Rep. Tom Perriello), rejected the request in a House Transportation [...]
Ron, he didn’t vote against Wolf’s amendment in Committee because he isn’t on the committee. Wolf is on the Appropriations Committee and was attaching his amendment to the Transportation Appropriations Bill. Perriello is on the Transportation Committee but they have no say in Appropriations bills.
The only statement I’ve seen from Perriello is that he is supportive of Wolf’s amendment. To claim otherwise is to take a position that allows the other side to question our relationship to reality.
McDonnell is on the attack with his transportation plan, we cannot squander our advantage!