“Yee haw,” says Schatz

Washington, D.C. – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today gave a rebel yell after being called a “bunch of peckerwoods” on National Public Radio by pork-barrel potentate Robert Byrd (D-W.VA).

“Yee haw,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Yip yip yip yip yip.”

Byrd’s comment came in response to criticism of the senator’s love of big spending and pork-barrel projects by the taxpayer group.

“Peckerwood is a derogatory term for a rural white southerner,” Schatz also said.  “This is the second time this year Byrd has given the rest of us a primer on racial epithets.  Obviously the senator’s prodigious command of the lexicon has abandoned him.  We’ve got his goat.”

While Senator Byrd enjoys quoting Cicero, he apparently does not ascribe to the following from the ancient Roman scholar:  “The budget should be balanced. Public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt.”

Byrd brought home $236 per West Virginian last year in pork, ten times the national average,  according to CAGW’s tally, and looks to be headed north of that figure this year.  As Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, he has repeatedly signaled his intention to raise spending by any means possible.

“Sen. Byrd may be feeling a bit salty today, as the first tax relief checks begin to flow away from him and back to taxpayers,” Schatz added.  “For Byrd the term peckerwood probably rolls off the tongue much easier than any combination of ‘against,’ ‘government,’ and ‘waste.’”

“An alternative definition of peckerwood is woodpecker, a bird that cleans up nature by trimming rotten, dead wood off trees and eliminating parasites,” Schatz concluded.  “Maybe Byrd’s description is right after all.”

CAGW is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government.