Living and breathing in the Second City
From The Hill:
Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has secured more earmarks in the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill than any other Democrat except for panel Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).
The bill contains about $5.4 billion in earmarks, or projects not requested by the Pentagon. With their slim majority, the Democrats on the panel claimed two-thirds of that sum. Clinton is among their more junior members.
By contrast, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), also a Democratic presidential candidate and Clinton’s rival for the nomination, has only one request in the defense bill.
Obama, who is not a member of the committee, made a request along with several other members for a Department of Education program for children with severe disabilities.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a presidential candidate and the panel’s ranking member, has long opposed pork-barrel projects and has no earmark requests. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a new member of the panel, also refrained. The two have sponsored earmark-disclosure language as part of the bill’s markup.
It’s always good to know who’s piling on the pork. But this probably won’t be a top election priority. People are angry about pork, but they’re angrier about a lot of other stuff.
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
-Carl Sandburg
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