Rep. Sweeney Goes Sledding

U.S. Rep John Sweeney went sledding recently. But the Republican Congressman who represents a 200-mile long district stretching from Poughkeepsie up to Lake Placid didn't take his children.

Rather, it was taxpayers that Rep. Sweeney took for a ride.

As the Syracuse Post-Standard first reported on Sunday:

The New York Power Authority used public money to pay for a $25,000 ski weekend for Rep. John Sweeney, of New York; a Texas congressman and his wife; at least a dozen lobbyists; and other D.C. staffers in Lake Placid. New Yorkers paid the way for the congressmen and other invited guests to ski, skate and toboggan like real Olympians for three days this winter.

Needless to say, Rep. Sweeney said that the trip received advance blessing from the always-rigorous (not) U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee.

However, according the Times Union Capitol Confidential blog when asked whether it was appropriate for NYPA, a State agency, to pick up the tab for the Congressman's tobaganning with lobbyists, Sweeney's spokesperson "took a pass: 'I don’t think it’s the congressman’s place to tell the state how to spend it’s money.'"

What!?!? It's for Sweeney to take the State's money, but who knows if it was okay for the State to give it to him?!?!?!

The Congressman's sledding adventure comes shortly after it was reported that he flew out to Utah for a fundraising-cum-skiing trip with Capitol Hill lobbyists. One of Sweeney's opponents, Kirsten Gillibrand, posted this vacation video.

The WFP's members look forward to interviewing Gillibrand and the various other challengers to the ethically bewildered Congressman.