Quotes of the day: On The Thomas Daschle Center for Public Service and Representative Democracy
Headline: “Not our problem,” University says. “We’ve just got the papers.”
“Yes, he has donated the papers to us, but the funding issues in the press are not anything we are involved in,” Reger said. “we don’t have detailed plans.”
- SDSU Executive Vice President for Administration Michael Reger on how SDSU didn’t have plans for “The Thomas Daschle Center for Public Service and Representative Democracy” when the earmark was submitted. (Brookings Register, 11/15/07)
“I told you so.”
- SDWC Blogger PP regarding his contention that no one bothered to ask the University if they wanted a “Thomas Daschle Center for Public Service and Representative Democracy” before they air dropped an earmark for it in the budget.
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Comments
“You’re clearly a partisan hack, PP”.
SDWC Reader Thad upon reading the article in context and calling PP out for taking the quote out of context. Reger is clearly talking about the partisan bickering in the press about the earmark being “for Daschle” and the airdropping, not how the university didn’t want the money.
“Go read the source material. It very clearly says what it says, no matter how you try to spin it.”
– PP as he informs thad that no matter how much he doesn’t like it, the newspaper article is crystal clear.
Not only was Tom Daschle involved in this scandalous theivery from the public treasury in the dead of night, his right hand man at the SDSU Foundation is Steve Erpenbach. They both look like clowns.
“I read it, understood it, and it does say what it says, and you’re interpretation of this crystal clear article couldn’t be more wrong because of your anti-Daschle bias.”
Thad to the spin dizzy PP.
Again, then WHO pushed this earmark. If it wasn’t the recipient, SDSU, then who arranged for the midnight airdrop???
commenting from the SDSU Foundation, eh? Is that you Steve Erpenbach??? or one of the other embittered Daschle staffers that Erpenbach hired over there??
Doing a heckuva job up there, President Choicoine!
9. (buzzer sound) POSSIBLE FOUL!
Sparks, only Dems, Progs and Indies get to use the “heckuva job” business. Please submit propper credentials to PP immediately, or stand by for strict disciplinary action.
Here’s the story on what is happening at SDSU. The administration believes that this midnight earmark was horribly bungled. They had no knowledge of it in advance and were told about by Tom Daschle himself and it came as a surprise. Although the administration didn’t know, the SDSU Foundation did and was pushing for it. The SDSU Foundation is run by Daschle’s long-time consigliere and hitman, Steve Erpenbach, who is also under fire for being such a terrible fundraiser. On the Washington side, it was Daschle himself who engineered the dark-of-night earmark without any hearing or votes. Daschle was working directly with his long-time buddy Harry Reid to do this. You will also see some interesting donations to Reid from Daschle about the time this organized robbery of the public treasury took place. Daschle’s people are very nervous about all of this becoming exposed and have been working hard to spin people. Daschle’s chief spinmeister on this issue is Steve Erpenbach.
So it was engineered by Daschle himself and his crony at SDSU Foundation? What is that not a surprise! If this is such a good idea, let Daschle himself or his supporters fund it. That’s how all these monuments to self should be done.
If the Regens had known they would have had big press releases months ago. Nobody is a bigger self-promoter than Tad Perry. Just ask him.
12. I wonder if this “truth” will bottom out Reid popularity in Nevada. It would serve him right if you posted this on a blog over there.
Wasn’t it Tim Johnson, in one of his few official acts this term, the one responsible for actually placing the earmark in the funding?
Anyone who has paid any attention to the Regents at all knows that Reger is not a Perry shill.
And, just so people understand – the SDSU Foundation is separate from SDSU and the Regents. It is a separate entity governed by its own board. Neither the Regents nor Pres Chicoine have any say in who the foundation hires. It is entirely possible that the foundation, or some of its members, were pushing for this without SDSU administration knowing about it.
I’m not saying that is what happened – but it easily could have happened that way.
It is VERY interesting that someone was posting comments from the SDSU Foundation and attacking critics of the Daschle earmark boondoggle. That is very damning evidence. Was it Erpenbach? Are people happy with the job Erpenbach is doing? Aren’t there concerns about how little he has raised? Does it help SDSU to have an angry flaming left-wing nut trying to get rich SDSU grad/farmers and ranchers to give money? Will this earmark fiasco get Erpenbach fired? How many Daschle hacks has Erpenbach hired? Stay Tuned People. More to Come!
As a recent SDSU grad, it’s fun to read about this. If you know anything about SDSU, you know how small and underfunded it’s political science/history department is. Having a Center like this seems a bit ridiculous when the department that would seemingly host such a thing is so sickly.
This is becoming a more embarassing scandal by the minute. So WHO DID push to include that money in a bill in the dark of night with nobody watching. My guess is that the answer is very simple–TOM DASCHLE talked Harry Reid into it.