GOP Rep: D.C. Metro Should Have Beefed Up Taxpayer-Funded Service For Anti-Gov Rally
In an interview just now, GOP Rep Kevin Brady defended his now infamous complaint that the D.C. Metro should have done a better job moving tea partiers to the 9/12 protests.
Brady insisted that the government-run Metro system should have better anticipated the increased demand created by the anti-government protesters — and should have beefed up service if necessary.
“If Metro routinely adds or subtracts cars to meet demand, daily or on weekends, I would expect them to make those same adjustments for this rally, a local sporting event, or any event where they expect increased ridership,” he told me.
Brady had previously suggested that D.C. Metro’s failure might have resulted in lower turnout at the 9/12 rally. Asked to square this complaint with his vote against the stimulus, which provides millions of dollars for D.C. Metro, he insisted there’s no contradiction.
“The stimulus is supposed to be for creating jobs, for creating new lines and expanding and modernizing their existing facilities,” Brady said of the stimulus money alloted to D.C. Metro, adding that the money has “nothing to do with the day to day operations of it.”
Brady didn’t directly answer when I asked him whether it was contradictory to expect government to do more — at potentially increased taxpayer expense — to meet the needs of a protest organized around opposition to government spending.
“The question [for D.C. Metro] is, Did you prepare for this major event, and in what way?” Brady said. He acknowledged, however, that he didn’t know whether the tea party organizers reached out to D.C. Metro in advance, saying this was a “shared responsibility.”
Brady’s getting results. He confirmed that taxpayer-compensated D.C. Metro employees had agreed to meet to discuss his charge that they’d failed to serve the anti-government protesters. Said Brady: “I appreciate their responsiveness.”
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O stop please – you’re killing me, GOP. I cannot quit laughing long enough to breathe -
I appreciate allowing the Rep to respond, but really – this is Happy Hour stuff.
BTW: “When Schroeder pounded on his piano, his eyes clenched in a trance, the notes floating above his head were no random ink spots dropped into the key of G. Schulz carefully chose each snatch of music he drew and transcribed the notes from the score. More than an illustration, the music was a soundtrack to the strip, introducing the characters’ state of emotion, prompting one of them to ask a question or punctuating an interaction.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/arts/design/14pean.html?_r=1&ref=arts
Any of you ever ride metro trains, on a Saturday in any of the major cities? I do occasionally, and the first thing I do is plan my travel schedule, and how long it will take, by looking up the train schedules for that particular Saturday.
Those people must have teabags for brains!
“Brady didn’t directly answer when I asked him to square his expectation that government should do more — at potentially increased taxpayer expense — to meet the needs of a protest that’s organized around opposition to government spending.”
You’d appreciate letting the Rep respond.
Fine – can you suggest how one might get him to respond since he had the chance and wouldn’t?
In a Just World: Metro to Brady: **** OFF!
Interesting – I guess the trains were really busy that day. Some estimates say that they had almost 230,000 more riders than the previous weekend.
I wonder why that might have been?
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/more-912-crowd-data-yeah-it-was-big/
They should say they prepared for around 50,000 protesters, but according to the Republican media, 2 million showed up. What were they supposed to do in the face of such a massive demonstration?
Then they should give Kevin Brady a pat on the back for turning out so many true ‘Mericans to the tea tantrum and send him out the door.
flounder – just 2 million? Pshaw – I heard it was over 4 million – more than the number who attended Obama’s inauguration.
Metro moved 2 million passengers on their light Saturday schedule of trains! Wow!!!
We have a miracle that out does the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
Did any of those teabaggers happen to see an image of Jesus in those train car windows, and if they did, I hope they made sure to compare it to a real photograph of him,just to make sure that it was really him.
After all, those who see Jesus or his mother appear in urine stain under highways, always compare them to the Holy Family Kodak Moments Photo Album to make sure that the apparitions are authentic. Yup! Yup!, You betcha. Wouldn’t want to have an false urine sightings, no siree!
Interesting – I guess the trains were really busy that day. Some estimates say that they had almost 230,000 more riders than the previous weekend.
Who needs (inaccurate) estimates when you have hard data at wmata.com?
Metro ridership was up on the 12th over the previous Saturday by 136,661.
If one is willing to assume all of that traffic was for the teabaggers – and the Black Family Reunion that also took place on the Mall that day – and that it’s round-trip traffic, that’s an additional 68,330 people.
Another great example of the GOP hypocrisy. “We don’t want an activist judge on the bench unless their anti-abortion, that’s ok. We want less government except when we need a ride to our anti-government protest. We are fiscally responsible and are concerned about the deficit unless you’re offering tax cuts.”
Why don’t the democrats ever show what hypocrisy these guys are? The Bush tax cuts ran the deficit way up and the GOP tried to make the permanent in their version of a stimulus plan.
sbj,
At best there were an additional 70,000 riders, but certainly not everyone attending the 9/12 MENSA conference rode the Metro. No independent agency except Beck’s “the University of I Don’t Know” have issued any figure higher than 70K. Quite frankly, from the pictures I saw, I think that number is a stretch. From what ******* did you extract your figure?
FauxNews went from 700K, to 1 million, to 1.8 million, then Malkin was claiming 2 million. Honestly, just because FauxNews sheeple are morons doesn’t mean the rest of us are. These numbers – yours included – are not even remotely credible. Obama’s innauguration had 2 million or more and the 9/12 event coverage looked NOTHING like that size crowd. Cite a credible source or cease and desist with the deliberately inflated figures, i.e., lies.
To try and inflate the under attended Million Moron March is just about as pathetic as anything you’ve ever posted. But I’m sure you’ll figure some way to top this, too.
Greg,
Honestly, why would this site’s language police object to the word o-r-i-f-i-c-e? I recently had the same reaction to the word s-e-x. The resulting asterisks make it look like I said something far worse than I did. A tad overprotective, ne c’est pas?
You make fun of the right & the protesters, but why are you no longer against the wars? Why have you all abandoned such a huge issue. Most of the left has shown themselves to be a fair-weather constituency. You are only for or against an issue when it is convenient for you. Hypocrites! The lot of you!
Out of Iraq, Out of Afghanistan!
He’s suggesting the turnout was lower because of Metro? So, people from around the country drove all the way to DC for this protest, and then went back to their hotel instead when the train was crowded? Or did many of the 9/12ers stay home because of a premonition that there would be delays on Metro?
You can’t compare consecutive weekends, especially since the previous one was a three-day holiday weekend. You have to go year to year.
Metrorail for September 12th, 2009: 437,624
Comparable Metrorail Ridership 1 Year Ago: 362,773
That’s what? A 75,000 increase?
Of course, the previous weekend had a 100,000 increase compared to the year before but I don’t remember any hand-wringing over the system being overwhelmed then.
Sounds like Republicans are just a bunch of whiners.
@Gasman: You are really rude, dude – and it’s a wonder that I even bother to respond. For one thing, you ask me for my source when I provided the darn link in my original post! This proves to me that you have already made up your mind and you obviously aren’t even interested in looking to other estimates.
The 70,000 estimate you folks keep citing apparently came from Fire and Emergency and is NOT OFFICIAL. You seem to be figuring that the size of the crowd equaled the extra metro rail ridership and are completely ignoring other factors, for instance, the 4500 CHARTERED BUSES that alone could have carried over 100,000 people.
Per Politifact:
“Pete Piringer, public affairs officer for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Department, said the local government no longer provides official crowd estimates because they can become politicized. But the day of the rally, Piringer unofficially told one reporter that he thought between 60,000 and 75,000 people had shown up.
“It was in no way an official estimate,” he said.”
We asked Piringer whether there were enough protesters to fill the National Mall, as depicted in the photograph.
“It was an impressive crowd,” he said. But after marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, the crowd “only filled the Capitol grounds, maybe up to Third Street,” he said.”
Note that bit about third street. USA Today had estimated that a crowd that filled to third street would equal 250,000 people.
“• The estimate widely used in the legacy media is not from an authoritative source, and it isn’t even consistent with itself: “full back to 3rd Street” is around 250,000 by Park Sevice methods, not a quarter of that.
• Many estimates, using different assumptions and different methods, arrived at numbers well into the hundreds of thousands.
• This is clearly consistent with the panoramic photo that we can source reliably.
• With everything above, and with several more estimates, I don’t think there is a plausible argument for any total attendance figure much less than 500,000 to 600,000. That is, nearly ten times the reported attendance.
How much does this matter? It’s hard to say. It might be that a precise number isn’t needed, and at any rate it may not be possible to get a good one. What we can say is that the number being reported is wildly wrong. Wildly too small.In any case, the number that will really matter is the count at the polls in 2010 and 2012. Given this, I’d say that any politicians who hope to retain their jobs better look very carefully at that panoramic photo — and remember.”
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/more-912-crowd-data-yeah-it-was-big/
@sbj:
Sorry, but crowd estimates from people who were initially claiming 2,000,000 simply aren’t credible.
On one side, we have an independent estimate, however unofficial, that’s in line with the objective facts. On the other, we have an increasingly desperate downward trending estimates.
And the source for 4500 chartered buses? The same people trying to sell the 2 million protesters line.
You don’t really understand the problems even half a million people showing up in the same place cause to a city. Do you know what 2 million people does? It’s traffic at a complete standstill for miles around. It’s thousands of people getting trapped in tunnels. It’s waiting half an hour for a metro-train that’s already jam packed full.
What actually happened? There was no more disruption in DC on September 12th than your average Nationals game. We hopped on the metro to go down to the mall and laugh at the tea-baggers. Bought some food at the Black Family Reunion Festival (also on the Mall and being conflated into your “estimates”).
Just an average DC weekend, except for the below average intelligent people protesting at the Mall.
sbj,
You best quit while you’re behind. There are so many data points that we could consult that would, I’m willing to bet, demolish your inflated numbers.
We could check hotel occupancy rates within D.C. and the surrounding area up to a radius of 200 miles. During the inauguration, hotels were booked solid to that distance and people were renting out their D.C. apartments for ridiculously inflated prices. Did you hear ANYTHING about massive shortages of hotel rooms, in advance or even after the fact for the 9/12 event?
We could consult the D.C. police, fire departments, and EMTs to see how the 9/12 event compared to the inauguration. Again, I’ll bet that the impact on manpower and resources was nothing compared to the latter event. How much do want to bet that the police didn’t cancel vacations and leave time and call up all available reserves on 9/12?
We could find out how many porta-potties were employed for the 9/12 event. I heard many stories about how difficult and/or impossible to get a turn at the doody-booths for the inaugural gathering. I heard no such stories for the 9/12 soiree.
How about transportation figures. Let’s get independent data from airlines, from the surrounding airports, from taxis, and from bus companies (directly from them, not filtered through sources very much inclined to lie).
How about the fact that there were TWO events on the mall at the same time, the 9/12 Socratic Method Convention and the Black Family Reunion. Did you hear any complaints from the BFR about being overwhelmed and crowded out of the Mall? If the numbers were anywhere near as large as your side contends, wouldn’t there necessarily been conflicts for space?
The impact on D.C. for the 9/12 MENSAfest was in no way comparable to that of the inauguration. If the attendance figures for the two events were even close, how can that be?
You and your allies on the right seem to have a pathological need to inflate the importance of this event, just like you need to inflate the importance of your positions. They are both exceedingly underwhelming when examined objectively. It suggests that you realize the utter unimportance of the teabagger event and feel the need to puff it up so as to make it seem relevant.
No amount of creative accounting or outright lying is going to change the utter insignificance of this event. It was but bubbles in the bathtub from a clownishly laughable collection of malcontents that seem unable to accept the fact that they lost an election.
Why do you need to lie to buttress your position? I would think that if you truly believed the 9/12 event was important and that it offered vital information to the nation, you would accept real numbers regarding attendance, even if it fell short of expectations. The infantile attempt to inflate attendance figures to ridiculously high numbers make the event seem even sillier and less important than it was. But the event already seemed pathetically silly before FauxNews started trotting out their mythical numbers.
If you expect anyone outside the sheeple fold to take you seriously, jettison the FauxNews fiction and offer up serious debate. If your posts contain childish assertions, don’t be surprised when people respond to you as if you were a child.
@lol:
“Sorry, but crowd estimates from people who were initially claiming 2,000,000 simply aren’t credible.”
I offered a crowd estimate based on USA Today reporting and US Forest Service estimates of a crowd size that reaches to third street.
“On one side, we have an independent estimate, however unofficial, that’s in line with the objective facts.”
You are going to hang everything on the unofficial estimate of ONE PERSON who acknowledges that the crowd reached to third street?
“And the source for 4500 chartered buses?”
That would be the number of permits issued by the city for such chartered buses.
“You don’t really understand the problems even half a million people showing up in the same place cause to a city. Do you know what 2 million people does?”
Um, yes I do and I have never suggested two million people.
@gasman:
“There are so many data points that we could consult.”
And yet, astonishingly, you provide NO SUCH DATA!!!!
You constantly refer to the inauguration and I have never said that the crowd was equal to that.
You and your allies seem to have a pathological need to deflate the importance of this event. It suggests that you realize the importance of the event and feel the need to delegitimize it so as to make it seem irrelevant.
When you can provide some facts please come back. I offered high resolution, verified photos, multiple estimates by reputable sources, the USA Today accounting of how many folks it would take to reach 3rd street.
You offer? A bunch of guesses without any actual data!
You claim that I lie and do not accept real numbers. There are no official numbers!
sbj,
You demand that I should provide data. Why? I am not making ridiculous unsubstantiated claims regarding the 9/12 teabagger event. It is incumbent on those who are proposing insanely preposterous attendance figures for the MENSAfest to provide evidence, not the other way around. You are essentially demanding that reality based adherents must disprove your theory. Why? There was no discernible disruption of services or any significant impact on Washington, D.C. during the COMBINED 9/12 events, let alone the teabagger event by itself. That fact alone is enough to place the ball squarely in your court. If no evidence exists suggesting an overwhelmingly large teabagger presence, why is our duty to disprove your ridiculous theory? You are demanding that we disprove a negative. This is an intellectually weak and dishonest tactic that is all too familiar from the right.
You state 500,000-600,000 attended, Beck says 1 – 1.8 million, and Malkin says 2 million. Those numbers differ by a factor up to four. How come? Who is right, you, Beck, or Malkin? What will FauxNews be saying next week regarding the figures? Will the number be up to 3 or 4 million? Even on your side of the aisle their are ridiculous inconsistencies in claimed attendance figures.
It is up to those providing the baseless inflated figures to prove their contentions, backed up by independent verifiable data. So far, the figures come from “the University of I Forget” with their “body counts” and FauxNews. Can you cite ANY independent verifiable sources which corroborate ANY of your figures?
@gasman: “I am not making ridiculous unsubstantiated claims regarding the 9/12 teabagger event.”
Well, in fact, you are. You are claiming that the crowd size was les than 100,000 and you are offering no data to back that up. That is what we call “an unsubstantiated claim.”
It is painfully obvious that you have yet to read the link I have provided. That link provides substantiation for my claims.
“There was no discernible disruption of services or any significant impact on Washington, D.C. during the COMBINED 9/12 events.”
And your point? I have attended huge events in Long Beach, CA with no discernible disruption of services. You prove nothing here – you don’t even prove that there was no disruption of services – you simply assert that such is the case and you base it on …? I don’t know – anecdotal evidence?
“If no evidence exists suggesting an overwhelmingly large teabagger presence.”
There was a crowd that stretched to third street and there is a high resolution panoramic photo of the crowd.
“You state 500,000-600,000 attended.”
Truthfully I did not.
“Who is right, you, Beck, or Malkin?”
The fellow in the link I provide. Will you please read it so you can stop making false claims?
“Their are ridiculous inconsistencies in claimed attendance figures.”
Duh! We are estimating! And we are basing it on data – data that I have provided and which you will not. You repeatedly suggest a crowd that is smaller than 100,000 but offer no data to back up your assertion!
“It is up to those providing the baseless inflated figures to prove their contentions, backed up by independent verifiable data.”
Would you please read the darn link!
“Can you cite ANY independent verifiable sources which corroborate ANY of your figures?”
Would you please read the darn link. The Forrest Service – before the inauguration – estimated that crowd that reached to third street would be in excess of 250,000 people. The USA Today reported that. The Fire guy acknowledges that the crowd reached that far. The high resolution photo proves it.
sbj,
You remind me of the crazed JFK conspiracy theorists who come up with insane versions of what happened that November day in 1963 and then demand that their contentions be regarded as fact until disproved. That is precisely the tack you have taken. The figure most often cited, official or not, that has come from an independent source has been the 70,000. The figures that you and FauxNews have trotted out differ wildly from that estimate, yet you cannot explain that discrepancy.
Do you accept Beck’s “scientific” analysis from “the University of I Forget?”
When I mentioned that you asserted 500K – 600K attended the event, you stated, “Truthfully I did not.”
From your post @11:42 a.m., you quote Politifact:
“I don’t think there is a plausible argument for any total attendance figure much less than 500,000 to 600,000.”
That was in your post and you did not dispute the numbers which you cited. Why would I assume that you disagree with numbers which you quote within your own post? It is entirely reasonable to assume that you agree with the figures you provide to buttress your own argument. If you don’t agree with numbers that you toss out, isn’t it your duty to make that clear?
You dismiss the 70,000 figure out of hand because it is not “official.” The Park Service figure is no less “unofficial,” yet because it is more to your liking, you embrace it. Even if we accept that figure, it is still HALF of the Politifact estimate, 1/4 to 1/7 Beck’s claims, and 1/8 of what Malkin claimed. Why the wild discrepancies? Who is right, the Park Service, you, Politifact, Beck, or Malkin? It doesn’t seem possible for more than one figure to be correct. Which is it? Regardless of which figure you endorse, you must concede that the majority of the conservative claimed attendance figures are simply wrong.
It is not up to me or anybody else to disprove your negative, especially since those on your side can’t even come close to agreeing on a number. Again, if you can’t come up with an argument that is less intellectually spurious, why should anyone take you seriously?
Oops. My bad. Forgot to turn off the boldface. It should have stopped after 600,00.
“The figure most often cited, official or not, that has come from an independent source has been the 70,000.”
And.that.means.absolutely.nothing.
“You cannot explain that discrepancy.”
I can explain ALL of the discrepancies – there is no official count!
I guess I DID assert 500,000 to 600,000. (My bad!) Sounds about right.
“You must concede that the majority of the conservative claimed attendance figures are simply wrong.”
If you say so – I never tried to defend them? I have presented one analysis that is backed up with much support.
My argument is NOT spurious and you have yet to address the link I provide which present an argument backed up by data. It’s quite reasonable.
@gasman: I’m not running away from this discussion but work calls so I will not be responding further. Thanks!
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