Claremont Insider: Gold Lining

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Gold Lining

In other transportation news, Congressman David Dreier, an alum of Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University, recently sat down with three Democratic counterparts representing cities with an interest in the Gold Line Foothill Extension.

The four, Dreier, plus Reps. Adam Schiff, Grace Napolitano, and Hilda Solis (Claremont City Councilmember Sam Pedroza's political patron), got together for a 25-minute video roundtable in which they talk about why the Gold Line is a great project deserving of better treatment from the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The video, with the title "Special Congressional Report," comes from Rep. David Dreier, Rep. Grace Napolitano, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Hilda Solis. The Los Angeles Times' Steve Hymon had a post about the video on his Bottleneck Blog. Hymon reports that the show, which was apparently made for cable TV, probably isn't an off-the-cuff conversation moderated by an independent host:

The show features the four of them sitting around in a circle being asked questions by a moderator named Jo Maney. Here is her first hardball question, addressed to Dreier:

"Can you tell us a little bit about the Gold Line Foothill Extension and how it will help reduce traffic congestion and save energy?"

Maney then goes on to forget to tell viewers a crucial detail: she happens to work for the guy she's interviewing. Maney is Dreier's press secretary.


Centinel over at the FC Blog also wrote about the video in a post (with apologies to the 1994 Arkansas Razorback basketball team) called "25 Minutes of Hell."