McCAIN AND HIS LOBBYISTS ON THE WARPATH AGAINST EARMARKS-- AND THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL ESTABLISHMENT

"We love pork, we love pork"

Did you watch that incredible video showing why Bush should be tried as a war criminal? Watch it all the way through. But the spot I was thinking about what where the American soldiers are getting the Iraqi children to chant "I like pork." According to Bob Novak's column this morning, we should edit the Iraqis out and put McConnell and most of the Republican Senate caucus in their place. Novak claims there's going to be a showdown between the pork-addicted caucus and the senators like Claire McCaskill, Barack Obama, Jim DeMint, and Tom Coburn. Because he's running for president the Lobbyist Express is also claiming to be anti-pork, an absurdity.

The congressional Republican establishment, with its charade of pretending to crack down on budget earmarks while in fact preserving its addiction to pork, faces embarrassment this week when the Democratic-designed budget is brought to the Senate floor.

It's hilarious to see McConnell (aka- Miss Obstruction 2007-8) using all the tactics of obstructionism he normally uses to advance the Bush agenda against reform-minded senators from his own party, especially against his own party's presumptive nominee.

The irony could hardly be greater. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, an ardent earmarker, is smart enough politically to realize how unpopular the practice is with the Republican base. Consequently, McConnell combines anti-earmark rhetoric with evasive tactics designed to save pork. But McCain, surely not the presidential candidate McConnell wanted, is pledging that as president he will veto any bill containing earmarks. McConnell, meanwhile, is running for reelection in Kentucky by bragging about the pork he has brought the state.

McConnell has appointed a taskforce to "look into" the matter, a taskforce of corrupt Republicans who have earmarked over a billion dollars in suspect projects. "Lawyer-like, Republican leaders are demanding a definition of an earmark. They could get a good idea by looking at a sample of earmarks recently secured by task force members. Cochran: $475,000 for beaver management in Mississippi. Lugar: $240,000 to rehabilitate the Alhambra Theater in Evansville, Ind. Isakson: $300,000 for Old Fort Jackson in Savannah, Ga. Crapo: $250,000 for the Idaho sage grouse." Ouch. I wonder if McCain will curse any of them out on live TV.

McCain, who has served the interests of his corporate donors as well-- if not better-- than any member of Congress, is campaigning about abolishing earmarks. Sometimes he sounds like he's running against Ted Stevens and Don Young; every speech he gives includes a disparaging mention of the Republican-sponsored "Bridge to Nowhere." His anti-earmarks hypocrisy worries advocates of legitimate scientific study and this morning's Washington Post contrasts the concerns of scientists with the politicization of the process by the notorious demagogue from Arizona.