Wednesday, March 08, 2006

County leaders: Fun's on us

When local politicians dine at The Lark with campaign funds, what do they order? The choices are virtually endless! There's the $68 "Copper Cataplana of Large White Gulf Shrimp, Clams, Mussels and Chourico Sausage with Smoked Paprika Sofrito," or of course the $74 "Veal Loin & Cheek with Trumpet Royale Mushroom Quinoa & Brandy-Veal Reduction" is excellent. It might even be a night for the "Classic Cuisine Special-of-the-Day," featuring such delights as the $69 "Cuisine Bourgeoise Braise-of-the-Day" (my favorite!) or the $75 "Islamorada Stone Crab Claws Chilled with Yuzu Aioli or Warm with Horseradish Mustard Sauce or Drawn Butter, Pommes Frites." Still, if I was a hard charging local pol, it would be hard to stay away from the suitably agressive $75 "Rack of Lamb Genghis Khan with Dauphinoise Potatoes & Glazed Carrots," which would really fire me up to go out and work for the people who elected me.

I should point out that those prices are really quite a value though, because all entrees come with a selection of cold appetizers and choice of salad. And don't forget that at The Lark, "If you wish more of any course except Rack of Lamb, Stone Crab Claws, it will be provided at no extra charge if timely and practical." It makes me happy to think that even though the Detroit region has lost thousands of jobs in both white- and blue-collar industries over the last few years, at least our county execs are dining well on their campaign contributions.

Disclosure: For the record, I don't give any money to anyone except Steve Tobocman, and I'm not in his district or even his county. I've also never seen him take so much as a samosa from someone. My company doesn't donate to any person or PAC.

2 comments:

Judy said...

Did you guys get wind of what happened here? Our State Rep, running for a third term, was ousted by a guy who raised over 4x more money than she did, all given by ONE INDIVIDUAL. The donor is a doctor in San Antonio and he is FOR something that our rep is AGAINST. So, he bought himself a seat in the state legislature.

Any shred of hope I had for our political system died last night.

Jonathan said...

I had not heard about it, but I just read an article about it and it is distressing. We need comprehensive campaign-finance reform nationwide.

Texas might be a special case though, you guys have some interesting stuff going on down there.