To the list of things no one could have anticipated -- planes flying into buildings, levees failing in New Orleans -- we have a new entry: that Republicans, after ranting endlessly about earmarks, after making a big show over passing a resolution to ban earmarks, are now having second thoughts:
After agreeing to kill earmarks, some of the most conservative GOP lawmakers are already starting to ask themselves: What have we done?
Indeed, many Republicans are now worried that the bridges in their districts won’t be fixed, the tariff relief to the local chemical company isn’t coming and the water systems might not be built without a little direction from Congress.
Oh no! Does this mean that Republican railing against pork-and-spend (or whatever the asinine catchphrase of the day was), was just another bullshit ploy designed to look like a principled stand? Apparently so:
— there is talk about tweaking the very definition of “earmark.”
“It’s like what beauty is,” said Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.). “Everyone knows what a bridge to nowhere is, or an airport that lands no airplanes, or a statue to you — everyone knows that’s bad. It’s easy to say what an earmark isn’t, rather than what an earmark is.”
Uh huh.
But surely the champions of tea party purity, Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Steve King (R-IA) are standing strong?
Conservatives like Roe, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Iowa Rep. Steve King are among those trying to figure out a longer-term, sustainable way to get money back to projects in their districts.
What a shock.