Democrats controlled two of West Virginia's three House seats, both Senate seats, the Governor's mansion, and the state legislature (which they have held since 1928).
One of West Virginia's two current Democrat senators, Joe Manchin, was governor at the time of the stimulus and appointed Mr. Gianato.
The executive branch of the federal government in 2009-2010 was controlled by the Democrats, along with both houses of congress. The federal stimulus was passed with no Republican support.
The entire chain of custody from the grant through request for bids through the eventual approval was controlled by Democrats. The only people involved in this fiasco without a (D) after their name are those people who will have their taxes raised in order to pay for these routers, because of course they were not paid for with existing revenue.
This is very much a failing of Democrat administrations at a federal, state and local levels.
He did actually say "Liberal" and not Democrat. There is a bit of a distinction there. Generally the Liberal party in the US isn't so Liberal and the Conservative party isn't so Conservative. I mean when you get down to it, in US politics...nobody's really much of anything. To peg it all down on a bunch of labels adds about nothing to meaningful discourse, because the labels don't mean anything.
I love West Virginia, and there is so much more important the state government could do with this kind of money if they're going to take it outside of "Homeland Security". As in, better health care or safety for the huge population of coal miners.
Unless I misread, the article is talking about West Virginia. I would hardly call WV a bastion of liberal thinking.
Never attribute to malice (or political leaning) that which is adequately explained by stupidity (or incompetence)