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What they're saying in Minnesota

about the bridge collapse. Ed Morrisey at Captain's Quarters is one of the best bloggers you'll read on any topic, but since the writer is a Minnesotan, his take on the local politics is instructive:

Yesterday, Senator Amy Klobuchar blamed the collapse of the I-35W bridge on a lack of highway funds -- even though the 2005 highway bill increased federal funding to Minnesota by 46% over its five-year span. Apparently realizing that line of argument wouldn't hold, Rep. James Oberstar accused MnDOT of being too cheap to use advanced technology for bridge inspections. He left out of his accusation that the technology hasn't proven itself for that purpose

Read the rest here.

I also read or heard somewhere that local environmentalists wanted the highway funds to be spent on light rail and other "non-polluting" transportation, not on bridges and highways. These are cousins of the folk in Arizona who won't let them cut down diseased trees for fear more people will find an area desirable for building, then scream global warming when the area dries up and burns. In any case, I don't think the administration of President Bush has a dog in this fight. As in hurricanes, the locals have the responsibility to be prepared after the Congress members bring home the pork.

Now it's all about bridges

Within 12 hours of the collapse of the bridge on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis, the kooks and krazies of the Daily Kos, the blogger behemoth to which Democratic presidential candidates are all rushing (especially John Edwards), were blaming George Bush and the Republicans. Now the johnny-come-latelies of the MSM are trotting out, "if only we weren't in Iraq, we'd have enough to repair our falling down bridges." They don't blame the "experts" who have been doing the inspections, or the report in 2001 by the U. of MN that said the bridge had years of service left. Each inspection seemed to call for more reports and inspections; none called for its closing. They don't blame the engineers. They don't blame the Congress who doles out the Highway Trust Fund from our gasoline taxes. They don't blame our rush to bio-fuels which will defund that Fund. They don't blame the wall of red tape snarling local, state and federal agencies responsible for highway safety. Nope. It's all in the power of the president/king/emperor George.

I looked at the list of bridge failures since 1980 in the USAToday. All seemed to be human error (barges or boats hitting them) or caused by earthquakes. None were on the list to watch, that I know of. I've been hearing stories for 20 years that the infrastructure of our cities was crumbling, but that George Bush is so powerful, his hand can reach backward.