Wish You Were Here... (Since Taxpayers Paid for It Anyway) Baron Visits Australia

Yes, folks, Baron Hill has been a busy man.

While Congress has not been in session, the 9th District's Congressman has enjoyed a glorious vacation at taxpayer expense.

Hoosierpundit sources have confirmed that Baron took his wife Betty along.

This was no working trip, no working vacation, but instead a junket for two.

And, get this, I have been informed by a staffer in contact with someone on the trip that Betty Hill, Baron's wife, has been seen during the trip sporting a Barack Obama for President t-shirt.

Don't tell Birch's boy.

Oh, how nice it must be to jet around the Pacific Ocean on the tab of the American taxpayer while your wife wears a political campaign t-shirt.

So not only is Baron on a holiday junket with his wife funded by taxpayer dollars, but she is basically involved in political activity while along for the ride.


Baron's wife is using the trip as an excuse to voice support abroad for a candidate for president (nevermind Democrat or Republican; politics is supposed to stop at the water's edge, after all).

Her husband, of course, technically has yet to endorse any candidate.

Heck, he hasn't even said yet that he's running again himself.

Anyway, first came the sunny tropical Pacific island of Guam.

Baron, you might recall, decided that his vacation was more important than seeing off Indiana's National Guard deployment to Iraq, the largest such deployment since WW2.

Baron followed his trip to Guam, and his hiding from the troops he voted to send off to war (and now refuses to support), with a trip to Vietnam.

There's something just surreal about running away from soldiers you voted to send to Iraq by running off to Vietnam to hide, but I digress.

The next stop on Baron's trip, his taxpayer-funded vacation, was Australia.

From News.com.au:

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has taken a break from his summer holidays to meet two of the United States' most powerful parliamentary leaders today.

Mr Rudd met the 13-member US Congressional Leaders delegation at his Sydney residence, Kirribilli House, this evening.

There was expected to be a host of issues on the agenda during their meeting, including the US-Australian alliance and security issues such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

The meeting will further emphasise the smooth transition in relations between Australia and the United States since the election of the Rudd Labor Government in November.

The bipartisan delegation, on a three-day trip to Australia, is made up of eight Democrats and five Republicans, and is led by US House of Representatives Majority Leader Congressman Steny Hoyer, from Maryland.

He is the second most senior Democrat in Congress after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The delegation, which has been to Vietnam and will also visit New Zealand, is made up of members of a number of powerful House committees, including agriculture and energy, armed services, ways and means, homeland security, judiciary and appropriations.

It will be the first opportunity for some of the most senior members of Congress - America's equivalent of Australia's federal parliament - to meet the new Rudd Government.

"They are coming to discuss trade, climate change, general relations between the US and Australia ... specifically here in Australia they wanted to meet the new Prime Minister," a US embassy spokeswoman said.

I like how the Australian Prime Minister will cut his vacation short to see a Congressional delegation, but Baron goes on vacation to visit Australia.

Can you say irony?

And they're going on from here to New Zealand!