Credit

In today's Argus Dave Kranz picks up the Herseth highway funding story and adds a new perspective. He notes that what Herseth got in special project funding is more than twice what the two (Republican) representatives of nearby geographically large, single district states got for their constituents. Sounds like fair and balanced reporting to me.

Kranz' story also notes that Steffi's press guy combed through Congressional web sites and came up with 144 members who have listed the federal dollar amounts for projects in their districts. That's a lot of work and the resulting comparison is a hell of a lot more rational and puts Steffi in a much better light than her own dumb-assed rant that "I'm better than an empty chair!"

I don't know if blog pressure makes for better reporting but, in this case, it might have resulted in more savvy congressional staff work.

Fans of inscrutability take note: Was Mark Johnston's "not true" a rebuttal of the idea that the state has its own private DC lobbyist or a rebuttal to the notion that the state's private lobbyist is making an end run around Steffi? Hmmmmmm.

Postscript: 03/20/05

Turn's out Johnston's "not true" was a rebuttal to the notion that the state's private lobbyist is making an end run around Steffi. As AVT has subsequently noted, South Dakota does employ a private lobbyist.