Leland H. Gregory III grins at a press release from Colorado State University. It says the school will conduct a study with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine whether surgically castrated prairie dogs will still protect their turf. “That’s too funny,” he says. The study’s goal–finding a way to control the prairie dog population–may be worthwhile. But Gregory muses, “What I’d like to know is how much it’ll cost.”
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Gregory knows a thing or two about government waste: his new humor book, Great Government Goofs!, presents some 350 examples of misspending, absurd statements, and various foul-ups committed by federal, state, and local officeholders. Soon after moving here two years ago, he spent three months collecting over 2,000 items from the Harold Washington library and from watchdog groups like the Heritage Foundation, EPA Watch, and the National Taxpayers Union.
God help them if they are: the book is peppered with asinine statements from politicians of both major parties. President Gerald Ford: “Things are more like they are now than they have ever been.” Vice President Dan Quayle: “One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is to be prepared.” California governor Pat Brown, discussing a local flood: “This is the worst disaster in California since I was elected.” And California legislator Barbara Boxer: “Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, ‘Thank God, I’m still alive.’ But of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again.”
