Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Sen. Jim Inhofe's New Cause: Protecting Wayward Pilots (Like Him)

Always alert to public needs (tongue firmly in cheek), Sen. Jim Inhofe is sponsoring new legislation that will protect the rights of civilian pilots—like Jim Inhofe.

Oklahomans may remember that Inhofe landed on a closed Texas runway last year, an incident that "scared the crap" out of several construction workers. Inhofe continues to insist that he did nothing wrong.

Inhofe's new legislation, reported in today's Tulsa World, is being presented by the senator as an "appropriate safeguard…to prevent agency overreach."

But it also looks a lot like sour grapes. After all, Inhofe landed on a clearly marked closed runway, got a slap on the wrist by the FAA, and now wants to get back at the agency for doing its job.

Unfortunately, this is exactly the kind of political game Inhofe loves to play. The Talking Points Memo story on Inhofe's new proposal is here.

1 comment:

Tulsan said...

Inhofe recently took a dip in the toxic glop in Grand Lake, and encouraged his granddaughter to do the same. She wisely declined. Evidently she favors other branches of the family tree when it comes to common sense.

He was probably hoping to come back with a contrarian, anti-environmentalist yarn.

However, he became "deathly ill" by his account. You would think he was going for this year's Darwin Award, but it's just Inhofe being Inhofe, just like scaring the crap out of airport workers with his poor piloting.

He is certainly the kind of person we need representing Oklahoma.