On Tuesday, the Secret Service asked Virginia officials if they would be kind enough to shut down all of the HOV lanes on I-395 from 1 to 7 p.m. the next day so President Bush could get where he needed to be, according to state officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing the president's travel.King George finally decided to take a helicopter and avoid closing down the highway. Putting aside the question of why the White House couldn't have done this in the first place, where was George Allen when all of this was going on? The Senator from Virginia didn't have an opinion about practically shutting down his own highway for six hours, including rush hour, in order to help him raise money while the little people suffered?
The request was made ahead of a fundraiser for Sen. George Allen (R) held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at a house near Mount Vernon -- a good hour's drive from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. during a typical rush hour.
The request came into Virginia's Smart Traffic Center on Tuesday morning, one official said. "We were sort of dealing with it all day," the official said.
All day because they couldn't shake the image of what closing the HOV lanes would do: Buses that normally use the high-speed lanes would have to be rerouted or canceled; commuters who hitch rides in carpools would be stranded; and thousands of cars would be added to the congested regular lanes of I-395.
Senators are supposed to help their states when they get into jams with the federal government. They're not supposed to help facilitate the jam itself.
