Gaggle of governors

Later this month Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and the governors of the other states, commonwealths and territories are scheduled to travel to Washington, D.C., for the National Governors Association Winter Meeting. They’ll drop a million dollars or more on plane tickets, hotels, meals, cab rides and other amenities basically to tell Washington a number of the states are broke — which Washington already knew. Doesn’t anyone think about the message that sends?

Of course, the meeting Feb. 21-23 will be billed as important, because it’s always  considered important. The guvs will meet with President Barack Obama, Cabinet members, academic and business leaders and other  luminaries.

They’ll participate in panel discussions, committee meetings and other forms of hob-knobbery. They’ll talk about the economy, meeting infrastructure needs and budgetary issues, which is good with so many of their budgets going up in flames right now. These will be called “challenges,” not “problems.”

Still, many Americans couldn’t be blamed for asking, with so many states wondering how to make ends meet, couldn’t they just hold a big teleconference and save lots of time and money?

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