Pipelines or Hospitals?

This odd little tale of power crews down in Mississippi being diverted to gasoline pipeline work on the orders of Vice President Dick Cheney is finally getting some notice. But not enough to even merit much of a follow-up even when federal officials came calling yesterday to thank workers for getting the pipeline back up and running. The power company had been concentrating on getting local hospitals online when the call from Washington came down to get power back to the pipeline that serves most of the East Coast. Crews working on substations that supply Stone County Hospital and George County Hospital were sent to work on the Colonial Pipeline instead.

It would be nice to know exactly who made that call and what they said. Cheney's office put the local Mississippi scribe on a Beltway snipe hunt for comment rather than explain what happened and under what authority it acted. I'm not even certain it was wrong to make the call or to stress the need to get the pipeline back up, it just makes me wonder how often a phone call from the Vice President's office is used to get things done.