Ciao, y’all
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton and wife Terri are back today after a fun-filled weeklong trip to Slovenia and Italy. The congressional junket, courtesy of the taxpayers, included 11 members led by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., under the auspices of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Although there were all the obligatory meetings with local officials and European parliamentarians at a conference in Slovenia at the beginning of the trip, all the attention riveted on the trip’s stops in Venice and Naples and the luxurious accommodations, fine eating and opera planned for the members that the Washington Post’s Al Kamen detailed in a column last week.
Berkley defended the trip to the Las Vegas Review-Journal saying that “It is a busy, busy agenda, and in between, there is some time for actual pleasure and enjoyment.” In Venice, she added, "I am going to go on a gondola after I have done the Air Force base and the liquid petroleum meeting."
And Berkley said she and her husband were planning to attend the opera in Venice. (Members buy their own tickets.) No word yet on whether Barton, an Arlington Republican who has served since 1985, and his wife took in Tosca.
-- Maria Recio
Joe Barton was my teammate in 1967-1968 on the Waco High School Tigers football team.He was a little hard-hitting linebacker.He is still a hard hitting Congressman serving in the same Congress with my sister Eddie Bernice Johnson.
Posted by: Carl Edward Johnson | May 30, 2008 at 03:32 PM
Wonder if Terri was still on the JPS payroll during this time...good strong republican, free trip while you and wife recieve tax payer dollars. How do you sign up to be a conservative.
Posted by: ears1foru | May 30, 2008 at 04:17 PM
While off on junket, he draws Federal Congressional salary, wife draws County (JPS) salary and we pay for air and lodging. Where do you sign up to be a conservative Republican and balance the budget this way.
Posted by: ears1foru | May 30, 2008 at 07:45 PM
AND, would we expect less from those who are 23 year Congressmen? It's our tax dollars and they know how to vacation on it, while others pay for it. This is the reason that our founding fathers originated Congress as a position of honor, where men served for a short period of time and went home to live under the laws they had passed. This is just another example of why our Nation and it's Congress is out of control on spending. THIS is graft at it's highest levels, junkits to Europe, about a junkit to the poor part of this country. WE NEED TERM LIMITS and WE NEED FEWER 23 year Congressmen.
Posted by: Bob | June 01, 2008 at 08:30 AM
What has happened to the S-T? Actually covering Asthma Joe's inert representation? Gawd. True, some of my shock results from thinking Asthma Joe was dead, but really, a Texas newspaper doing its job? In the words of Sheriff Taggert, "I am depressed."
What's next, living cartoonists for the funny pages?
Posted by: BurningFeet | June 01, 2008 at 09:43 AM
Can't imagine that Smokey Joe would show up on any trip he had to pay for by himself. If its not our tax money he spends for his family outings, then he's sold his vote for some lobbyist's money.
Really... what a sleaze bag rep. Doesn't FT Worth deserve better than this idiot?
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