Kennedy and Kerry Going All Ted Stevens on Us?

Our Senators, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, are catching some heat for an earmark on a transportation bill designed to help prevent delays at airport hubs. The earmark is for $8 million, which is peanuts in guv'mint terms, but that $8 million isn't going to Logan--it's going to airports in Barnstable and Nantucket. And Barnstable and Nantucket are hardly "hubs."

Money flowing into Massachusetts is a good thing, but an $8 million earmark for Barnstable and Nantucket seems high. Walter Brooks at Cape Cod Today, who has posted a piece CNN did on the subject, would agree: "It was ironic, at least, that a similar earmark of $3.5 million was added to the same bill by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens for the tiny Akutan airport in the remote Aleutian islands."

Wonkette referred to the $8 million as "airpork" and started cursing up a storm when they saw that $1 million of the money was going to the "Steamship Authority's Oak Bluffs Ferry Terminal Reconstruction."

Bostonist decided to hear the Senators' side of the story, and we reached Senator Kennedy's press office. We asked them why the earmark was as high as $8 million and why some of that wasn’t going to Logan, which is a "hub" according to the proper definition. The office returned the following statement:

Both towers [in Barnstable and Nantucket] are more than 40 years old, outdated, and need to be replaced to ensure safe operations in the years ahead. The Barnstable tower in particular presents visibility challenges for air traffic controllers. Senator Kennedy has been working for several years to secure funding to replace the towers and is grateful the Committee approved these important requests.

According to Google archives, Barnstable agitated for a new air traffic control tower back in 2004 and 2005. Anyone else know the state of air traffic control on the Cape?

Image from Wikimedia Commons.