On Episode 3 of Sacramento Current, the band talked about the secret levee tour Rep. Dan Lungren gave Speaker John Boehner on March 12th.  This “tour” was seen by many as a mere detour for the two lawmakers as they traveled between a Lungren fundraiser and an event held to add to the war chest of the Republican National Congressional Committee.  According to the Sacramento Bee, Lungren himself admitted that the two did not get “mud on our shoes”.  

Lacking was a briefing by local levee experts from SAFCA, the Army Corps of Engineers, or any local leaders for that matter, and the Speaker, the nation’s most powerful Republican lawmaker, made no promises for greater flood protection for Sacramento.  A cynic might call that an opportunity to turn a political fundraising junket into a tax payer paid “fact-finding mission”.  But the band at Sacramento Current is anything but cynical.

Juxtapose that tour against the one led yesterday by Rep. Doris Matsui and Sen. Diane Feinstein, where the Congresswoman and rain-soaked, baseball cap wearing Senator met with regional flood / levee experts and leaders from throughout the area.  Matsui, a longtime and open crusader for greater flood protection, and Feinstein toured the levees and were fully briefed on the work that has been done to improve them.  More importantly, they saw first-hand the work that still needs to be done (and funded) to make the region safe.  One might even venture to say that they got a little mud on their shoes.