Oh, thank GOD we got that contract through before the shutdown!

I'll toast to that!

Honestly, the little people with their little problems like cancelled vacations and barricaded businesses and evictions from private residences in national parks, can not even hold a candle to the horror that would ensue if a $5 million contract for custom crystal glassware hadn't made it under the wire before this hideous government shutdown.

Really. There is only so much sacrifice those who have no intention of sacrificing can be expected to make.

Just a week before the government shutdown kicked in on October 1, the State Department awarded a five-year, maximum $5 million contract for custom handcrafted crystal stem and barware, according to a report in the Valley News, an online news site in Vermont (via Charlie Perkins).  Valley News reporter Warren Johnston reports:

On eve of last week’s government shutdown, Simon Pearce won a potential five-year competitive contract for $5 million to provide 20 different styles of custom handcrafted stem and barware to the State Department for use in American embassies around the world. 

The contract stipulates that the items be made in the United States, Clay Adams, chief executive officer at Simon Pearce, said in an email. 

“Simon Pearce is a natural fit for this given its production in Vermont and Maryland. Simon Pearce received its first purchase order … for more than 12,000 pieces, most of which will be produced here in Vermont later this year,” Adams said...

I am entirely sympathetic. It would be outrageous if the diplomats in the State Department had to make do with last year's stemware. The ability to set a fine table by our lords and ladies of the new aristocracy is of paramount importance.

And if you question their need for the finer things in life, then you are simply a tea-bagging, knuckle-dragging, stooped-shouldered, slope-headed, mouth-breathing throwback and there's no point in even attempting to explain why government shutdowns must never be felt by those who wield the power in government.

Except that whole Benghazi thing. I wonder if Ambassador Stevens would have preferred long or short-stemmed wine glasses instead of security. Oh well...

Government shutdowns are for the little people.  They are the ones who need to learn a lesson.