Lautenberg did vote to give $1 million to the Museum at Bethel Woods, N.Y., the location of the August 1969 Woodstock Music Festival and Art Fair, as well as cricket eradication. A Lautenberg staffer noted the cricket bill also included aid to New Jersey farmers and the Women, Infants and Children food program. He did not vote on peanut storage; it died before it got to the Senate.
Neither Lautenberg's Senate staff nor his campaign office would discuss the issue. His campaign spokesman, Brendan Gill, said, "We don't have an opponent right now. Once the Republicans choose a nominee, we'll be commenting on a regular basis on what they say."
The Woodstock museum, set to open next spring, never got its federal money; a coalition of Republicans and Democrats killed the proposed $1 million in mid-October. Still, that didn't stop the museum from getting mileage in the presidential campaign, a New York congressional race, and New Jersey's U.S. Senate primary.
When they were fighting earmarks in the federal budget, Republicans used the "hippie museum" to criticize U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D., N.Y.), who sponsored the spending with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D., N.Y.).
U.S. Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) liked the hippie museum slap so much he made two ads about it. One depicts him saying: "A few days ago, Sen. Clinton tried to spend $1 million on the Woodstock concert museum. Now, my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time."
His remark, made in a Republican debate, referred to his years as a prisoner during the Vietnam War.
