James Oberstar: “It is clear that the fix is in, the tablet has been handed down from atop Mount Gingrich. Republicans are determined to…”

“It is clear that the fix is in, the tablet has been handed down from atop Mount Gingrich. Republicans are determined to erect a political billboard at the entrance to the Nation's capital in honor of their hero Ronald Reagan. I have no objection to naming something for Ronald Reagan. In fact, I supported the naming of the billion-dollar international trade center in downtown Washington in honor of Ronald Reagan, just a stone's throw from the White House. I sympathize with his family and the condition that he finds himself in with Alzheimer's. My dearest aunt suffered from and succumbed to Alzheimer's. I know the pain that they are experiencing. But that does not justify doing something we have never done in the history of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure or its predecessor, the Public Works Committee, and that is take a name off a building and put another name on. If this structure had no name, there would be no objection on this side. But you are taking a good name, the good name of Washington National Airport, and taking that off and substituting for it another name. That is not right.”