The pork dishonor role

This editorial in The Examiner describes two interesting and somewhat distressing pork-related votes in the Senate. Sen. Jim DeMint proposed an amendment to kill a provision in an appropriations bill directing $2 million to three construction projects for a college in Harlem, all to be named after Rep. Charles Rangel. Two Democrats — Russ Feingold and Evan Bayh — broke ranks with their party to vote in favor of DeMint’s amendment. Meanwhile, 16 Republicans voted against the amendment and in favor of Rangel’s pork project. The 16 were: Lamar Alexander, Kit Bond, Thad Cochran, Trent Lott, Susan Collins, Larry Craig, Pete Domenici, Chuck Hagel, Orrin Hatch, Richard Lugar, Lisa Murkowski, Ted Stevens, Richard Shelby, Arlen Specter, George Voinovich, and John Warner.
To make matters worse, 13 of these 16 also voted against an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act by Sen. Tom Coburn that would have prevented millions of new dollars from being added to the more than $500 million previously earmarked by Jack Murtha for the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) located in his district. This is a boondoggle that, according to The Examiner, the Justice Department and one of NDIC

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