Jay Inslee’s Copenhagen Junket Turns Heads

By Evan at January 15th, 2010.

Washington’s 1st District Congressman, Jay Inslee, is said to have his eye on the Governor’s mansion. However, his recent attendance at the U.N. Climate Summit turned a few heads.  And here’s the punch line: it’s CBS News that’s blowing the whistle.

Inslee isn’t the only junket junky from Washington’s Democratic Congressional delegation.  3rd District Congressman Brian Baird (D-Vancouver), faced an outpouring of criticism after taking lavish trips to the Galapagos Islands and the South Pole, ostensibly to “study the oceans” and learn about climate change.  Baird, of course, shocked many observers by announcing his retirement late last year.

For his part, Inslee does have a book on climate change and renewable energy.  But why attend the Copenhagen summit? Everyone else was doing it!  Except, they weren’t.  According to CBS, Nancy Pelosi handpicked attendees.  Sure, Inslee could have  easily attended via teleconference (he can see Microsoft from his front yard!), but hey, who needs such new-fangled technology. Rewind back to August when the town hall shout downs were looming, and Inslee was all about phoning it in.

Yeah, yeah, carbon footprints and all that jazz.  3 military jets. Hundreds of hotel nights booked. But the real kicker is this: the Copehagen summit was by all accounts an abject failure.  Will the luxurious junket put a kink in Inslee’s gubernatorial aspirations?  With the current political climate, Inslee might do better to focus on simply getting re-elected to Congress. Something tells us Inslee’s Congressional travel tab might be front and center this fall.

Tags: Congress, Copehagen, featured, Jay Inslee, Junket Junky, WA-01, WA-GOV

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