(H/T – Slublog)
You might remember that one of San Fran Nan’s goals of her 100 Hours gimick was to end earmarks as we know them by forcing disclosure of who dumped the earmark in. It actually is one thing I can cheer out of the Rat-infested House.
However, I have some bad news. Much like the every-other-year dance of pay increases for Congress, it was all a sham. It seems our “brave” new leaders in the Senate, Dick Turbin, Dingy Harry Reid, and Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy, don’t want to kill earmarks in the Senate. While they did not manage to table the attempt by Jim DeMint (R-SC) to adopt the House language on earmarks instead of a competing definition that would exempt 95% of the earmarks (vote was 51-45, more on that in a moment), the Swimmer objected to unanimous consent, allowing Turbin and Dingy Harry to keep on twisting arms to try to keep the pork alive.
So, who voted how? It was close to party-line, with most of the Pubbies jumping onto the reform wagon a bit late and most of the ‘Rats clinging to the pork like a liferaft. Beyond the three that didn’t vote (Johnson, Brownback and Inouye), the ones that jumped ship were:
- ‘Rats who voted to not table the amendment – Cantwell, Feingold (shock), Harkin, Kerry (who probably will take the opportunity to say he voted for it before he voted against it), Landrieu, Lieberman, Nelson, Obama (who, if he didn’t mark himself for an extended stay at Ft. Marcy Park before, just did now), Tester and Webb.
- RepubicRats who are just too damn stupid – Bennett, Bunning, Domenici, Hatch, Cave-A-Lott (proving me right he wasn’t worthy to return to leadership), Smith and Voinovich.
The final votes are expected next week.
