TU QUOQUE? The Corporate Crime Reporter looks at Mayo Clinic v. Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern.

Running right next to the Mayo Clinic campus in Rochester is a rail line.

And a small railroad -- the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad (DM&E) -- with powerful political connections wants a $2.5 billion loan from the federal government.

DM&E's president Kevin Schieffer wants to turn his little $220 million-a-year pipsqueak railroad into a major $1 billion-a-year coal-carrying behemoth.

He wants to carry the mega-tonnage of coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming through South Dakota and Minnesota and on to Chicago and then to coal-burning plants throughout the United States. The 2,800-mile line would run right through Rochester, Minnesota. Home to the Mayo Clinic.

And so, Dayton, and Forbes and Ryan gathered last week at the National Press Club to make their points to the national media.

The DM&E is an unsafe railroad, they said. In fact, they claim it has the worst safety record in its class of railroad. They say its accident record is more than double that of all railroads in its class. And it is one of only two railroads in America operating under a safety compliance agreement the Federal Railroad Administration.

Yes, its rail line currently runs right next to the Mayo Clinic. Trains run by there now, they concede -- but at a slow speed -- 10 to 15 miles per hour. If the company gets the loan to upgrade the line, the trains will run much faster than they run now -- 40 to 50 miles per hour.

In addition to carrying coal, they will carry hazardous materials. What if this accident-prone railroad has a hazmat accident, and there is a spill, or an explosion? Our patients, who fly here from around the world, would be put at risk. Can't you see?

And then Stephen Ryan of Manatt Phelps slaps DM&E with a Red Card: "This is an island of socialism in a sea of capitalism."

By which he means that DM&E is seeking a $2.5 billion government loan.

And so we asked Manatt's Ryan: Mr. Ryan, Manatt Phelps is a powerful Washington, D.C. law firm. Isn't it conceivable that Manatt Phelps has in the past represented other corporate entities who have sought bailouts from the federal government?

"No," Mr. Ryan says.

No?

A five-second search found at least one example -- Manatt represented US Airways before the Congress in the post-9/11 bailout of the airline industry.

Maybe it's just a sea of corporate socialism?

Isn't rent-seeking wonderful? Mayo have their own history of misplaced corporate welfare.

Further into the report comes the possibility of a compromise. The DM&E system includes bits of the old Milwaukee Road. The coal could be routed off the Winona and St. Peter at Owatonna, and onto the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern's ex-Milwaukee line by way of Calmar and Marquette. That routing, however, does not offer as easy a connection to Canadian Pacific as the Rochester routing. (The Rochester routing also gets closer to Union Pacific and the Santa Fe, but those co-owners of the existing Powder River line are unlikely to short-haul themselves, Northern Tier politicians or not.)