Politics: Economy
Kempthorne Spent $235K Remodeling Bathroom
Monogrammed towels, fridge and freezer includedBy Jill Kuraitis, 1-05-09
The Washington Post has a report today about outgoing Interior Secretary andformer Idaho Gov. and Senator Dirk Kempthorne spending about $235K to renovate his office bathroom.
If Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) is confirmed this month as interior secretary, he’ll have a snappy, scarcely used bathroom in his fifth-floor office, thanks to Dirk Kempthorne, the outgoing secretary.
Seems Kempthorne spent about $235,000 in taxpayer funds renovating the bathroom a few months ago, which included installing a new shower, a refrigerator and a freezer and buying monogrammed towels, department officials told our colleague Derek Kravitz.
The General Services Administration approved and partially funded the project, an Interior Department official said. The GSA paid about half the cost to refurbish aging plumbing, which needed to be replaced within four years.
But department officials say much of the money was spent on lavish wood paneling and tile. Among the choice items found in the new bathroom: wainscot wood panels extending from floor to ceiling and cabinet doors revealing a working refrigerator and freezer.
What is it with Idaho Republicans and bathrooms?
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Those Idaho Republicans need special-ordered "wide-stance" toilets, which aren't cheap.
And you never know when Larry Craig might pop by and need to use the facilities.
-Jon Cheever
A refrigerator? A freezer? What about a stove and a microwave? Better hire a full-time chef, too. And an FBI agent to watch the chef.
He knew he was leaving right?
Not just ordinary toilet paper... special super-soft quilted toilet paper with the Department of Interior logo stamped onto each sheet!
"Public servants" deserve the very best!
All those lavatory facilities have intricate tile surfaces, ten foot tall doors with black walnut moldings, and lots of fine brass castings and porcelain surfaces. They are, after all, the headquarters for the management of a quarter of the land in the country. Each floor is devoted to an agency of Interior. It is not a mobile home, a triple wide, leased for 20 years to the US Govt GSA for offices in Scab Rock. There are lots of remodeled mansions in this country, apartments in NYC, condos in Florida, where a quarter million dollar bath remodel is just another hoo ha, and life goes on. If you want to see excess in buildings and cost, just visit US Courthouse construction costs. I was aghast at the costs incurred in the construction of the new US Courthouse in Portland and the one in Eugene. I believe the secure parking for the judges in Portland was more than a million dollars a car space. The building itself came to close to a half billion dollars with all the amenities and appropriated spaces, and the security boundaries and lost opportunity, all to have a secure building in the middle of the city downtown area. The judges have the final say so on every detail. It is designed to their approval, and built to include their amenities, for their safety, and to be a fortress at any time. Kempthorne, by their standards, is a piker. He is cheap.
The man if pure waste to me.
Never mind Davis-Bacon, and layers of architectural review and other whatnot, and Homeland Insecurity regulations? The monogram towels were what, fifty bucks?
Dirk was a joke as a governor and is a bigger joke as a Secretary of the Interior. He trashed Idaho's wilderness to put in a road to his hang out and not just any old road he had to make it wide enough for his head and crew of buddies.