One of the big applause lines in McCain's stump speech occurs when he threatens to veto bills laden with pork and call out those who ask for egregious earmarks: "You will know their names! I will make them famous!"
This is one pledge McCain has already shown signs of keeping, having done more than enough to make Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin famous. Alaska led the nation in per capita special project funding in 2008, getting over $500 per resident from Washington, and Palin's history of hiring lobbyists to score funds, of course, dates back to her time as mayor of Wasilla.
So given that it's apparent how McCain plans to "make them famous", let's take a look at who might find their way onto his cabinet...
Roger Wicker (Secretary of the Interior): Wicker tag-teamed with fellow Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran to rack up over $1 billion in earmarks during fiscal 2008, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. Cochran, in fact, beat the next-most-earmark-friendly senator by over $350 million, but Wicker is the one who's more likely to be looking for work in December, so he's the one who'll have to represent the duo in cabinet. Given his wide-ranging earmark portfolio (including defense contractors, energy and water projects) the Department of the Interior seems to be the best fit for him.
Ted Stevens (Secretary of Energy): It's not just due to Palin's contributions that Alaska led the nation in per-capita federal pork. Stevens is (was) a champion earmarker, bringing home almost half a billion dollars in FY 2008. Assuming he's not in prison, he'll be a natural running a Big Oil-friendly Department of Energy for McCain.
Linda Lingle (Secretary of Education): Alaska isn't the only pork-friendly state with a female governor. Hawaii clocked in at #2 in per-capita earmark appropriations, and while they owe most of that to Daniel Inouye, Lingle doesn't appear to have done much of anything to put her thumb in the dike. With Lingle term-limited to end her governorship in 2010 anyway she should be more than willing to come to Washington. Given her scuffles with the teaching union and board of education over drug testing for teachers (and who would actually pay for that drug testing), she should be more than comfortable in a department that will be among the first to get the hatchet from McCain if he ever looks to cut spending instead of just running up the debt Bush-style.
