Today’s Must Read

Remember when slipping your district millions of federal dollars for a pet project was brazen? Rep. Don Young (R-AK) has raised the bar. Take a look at the story of Coconut Road in today’s New York Times.

The Florida road mysteriously received a $10 million earmark in 2006 that would connect it to a major interstate. Local congressman Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) says he isn’t responsible for it.

Just days before the earmark appeared, real estate developer Daniel J. Aronoff helped raise $40,000 for Young at the Hyatt Coconut Point Hotel in Florida:

A consultant who helped push for the project spelled out why its supporters held the fund-raiser.

“We were looking for a lot of money,” said the consultant, Joe Mazurkiewicz. “We evidently made a very good impression on Congressman Young, and thanks to a lot of great work from Congressman Young, we got $81 million to expand Interstate 75 and $10 million for the Coconut Road interchange.”

This isn’t Young’s entrée into earmarking.

Young, who last year steered more than $200 million to a so-called bridge to nowhere reaching 80 people on Gravina Island, Alaska, has no constituents in Florida.

Unfortunately for Young, this news is coming out at a bad time. He is already roped into the ongoing federal investigation into Alaska lawmakers’ ties with a local oil services company, Veco Corp. And as the Times points out, one of his former top aides, Mark Zachares, has pleaded guilty to bribery charges involving the lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Young declined to speak with the Times reporter on the story.

When he was approached near the House floor by a reporter, Mr. Young responded with an obscene gesture.