The Popcorn Stand: He should have ducked this issue

I’m going to wade (no pun intended or maybe it is intended) into the world of politic as carefully as I can just to make a point. Of course, I’ll try to figure out how to criticize a Democrat in a similar way in the future.

Rep. Mark Walker, a Republican from North Carolina, derided the use of ramps that were put in place at the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool to help four families of ducks get in and out of the water in areas with a concrete barrier. The ducks have apparently made the reflecting pool their home until if and when they fly away.

Walker tweeted: “If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it must be government waste.”

If it wasn’t for Walker’s tweet, I don’t think anybody would have cared or even noticed the two ramps. I tried to track down the cost of the two ramps or even if they were paid for by taxpayers and came up empty and although I know government costs can get out of hand at times, I can’t imagine two ramps costing that much.

Walker, though, found out you need to pick and choose your battles and picking on ducks is the equivalent of saying you don’t like puppies. The ducks apparently have trouble getting in and out of the water and the ramps are actually a life saving measure for the ducks. It’s been reported the ducks are actually using the ramps.

And all Walker did was give ammunition to those on the more liberal side to criticize his perceived hypocricy. There were 2,500 tweets directed at Walker with some saying the solution was actually a cost-effective one. But here’s a couple of samples that really represented the tenor of the tweets: “We could fly them down to Mar-a-lago every weekend if you’d like” and “Fire the person that runs your Twitter feed. Trump passed classified info to the Russians, and duck ramps are what you are worried about???”

So, in this case, Walker should have ducked the issue.

— Charles Whisnand