'The Eighty Two Porkers Hanging in the Senate'

Corbis Images  'The Eighty Two Porkers Hanging in the Senate'

I must be missing something here. I ignored this story for a while thinking that sense will prevail. But hearing the news rendering the despicable decision made by the Senate in a 82 - 15 vote against the prudent and sensible bill proposed by Senator Tom Coburn, (Oklahoma), I think it's time to join Glenn Reynolds @ Instapundit, who has championed the Senator's bill from the outset, and provided the most comprehensive updates throughout. John Hinderaker @ Powerline, Michelle Malkin, The Anchoress et al, are also memebers of the The Outraged Porkbuster Crusaders, who have been steadfastly united from the outset. Finally the Daily Kos, who does not get a mention often on this site, has joined forces and is a welcome addition by sheer virtue of numbers, urging the dems not to vote against. A bit late buddy.

WaPo, and Jim Abrams @ AP report on the Battle of the Bridge to Nowhere, where the Senate voted on Senator Tom Coburn's sponsored bill to rescind  some of the serious overspending relating to the $286.4 billion transportation bill,  and  to re-direct a smaller portion of the funds to the much needier Hurricane Katrina recovery.

K-Lo @ The Corner weighs in (still haven't forgiven you for Miers, but hey what the.... if Daily Kos is in anything goes).

Senator Ted Stevens (R Alaska) vehemently opposed claiming that after 37 years in the Senate he would resign and "be taken out of here on a stretcher" if the Senate killed funding for two Alaskan bridges. The so called Bridges to Nowhere, named after a whopping $223 million in federal funds – would connect Gravina Island (population 50 people) to somewhere equally obscure called Ketchikan, and The Knik Arm Bridge, which is set to receive another $231 million, and would destroy a historic Anchorage neighborhood to connect with an area so remote it boasts only three dirt lanes.

Frankly I think it's high time the Senator did exit on a stretcher!

The bridges are perhaps the most egregious of approximately $1 billion worth of special earmark funding set aside for Alaska in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act.

John Hinderaker writes:

"When Stevens talks about treating Alaska differently from any other state, he isn't referring to the astonishing amount of federal money that is spent there. No, his definition of "treating differently" is subjecting his own pork requests to any rational scrutiny...

And when Stevens talks about "taking money from" Alaska, he means deciding not to spend $220 million to build a bridge for the benefit of 50 people. This statement, by a Republican Senator, is analogous to claims by liberals that when taxes are cut, the federal government is giving money to the rich.

So now we know: there are only fifteen members of the Senate who are unwilling to waste the taxpayers' money on even the most frivolous of projects. Let's see what we can do about the other 85"

Check out Hugh Hewitt's Radio Blogger who have the interview with Senator Tom Coburn.

Latest Update: Andrew Roth @ Club For Growth who has the best minute to minute coverage to date, the Senator's statement after the vote. He also has his finger on the pulse of the floor of the Senate, so don't miss his brilliant coverage. Larry Kudlow, former Reagan economic advisor, a syndicated columnist, and the host of CNBC’s Kudlow & Company, is weighing in from his blog, and being one of the founding members of the CFG he is fully behind the move:

"Fiscal responsibility has pork up against the ropes and is swinging away with bipartisan support.
All over the blogosphere - conservative sites and liberal too - a wave of support is gathering force behind the Coburn Amendment to put a final stop to Congressman Don Young’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska. This amendment is a big deal as it threatens the opposition by opening up ALL the pork in the Highway Bill."

Andrew Roth is shaming Daily Kos into some serious support from the dems: 

"I just got a response from the Daily Kos blog.

    Democrats won’t vote against this. Remember — we want to rebuild New Orleans.

    This one is all on your side. You guys control Congress, you make the rules, we don’t. It’s up to your team to get it to a vote."

Chris Chirstner  who has a list of the 82 Porkers, and Mark Tapscott of the National Heritage @ Tapscott's Copy Desk are both good sites to get some more updates from the blogosphere buzzing with outrage.

Danny Glover, a democrat (heh, anything goes today), boasts an impressive number of credits in the movie industry, heavily involved as a champion of human rights, the goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Program, he writes for @ National Journal's Beltway Blogroll . Some insights from Danny:

"No piece of “pork” serves as a better symbol for the blogosphere’s PorkBusters campaign against earmarked spending in lawmakers’ districts than the “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska. Now that one project has become the focus of a blog-inspired fight in the Senate.”
[...]
"In fact, it's a safe bet to say that the blogosphere is where Coburn first heard that distant rumble. Remember, he is the senator whose staff sent an unsolicited e-mail to a blogger ... from Wisconsin".

The guys have open trackbacks again this weekend: Mudville Gazette, The Political Teen, Publius Rendezvous,

Comments

[lilly]

I agree with Alexandra,"there will be plenty of sweet deals ticking along in the background". One has to look always to the financial background of everything.

[Rob]

This has all the makings of a MasterCard advert, albeit a ham fisted one.

1. "A bridge to n(d)ear" : $286.4 billion
2. "A'bridging the divide' : $223 million
3. 82 recently purchased Alaskan hamlets all requiring a specific road access : currently worthless until two bridges are built

4. The look on 295,734,134 Americans doing their tax returns : PRICELESS !

[North by Northwest]

Case in point - and bear with me as to the relevance of 'Porkers': The Senate Committee Hearing, during which Condoleezza Rice was defending the administration’s conduct of the war when Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was one of those who questioned her and objected.

The administration, Boxer noted (correctly), has changed focus on Iraq. We went to war mainly on account of weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism, she said. But WMD turned out to be a hoax on the whole world, and nowadays we are told that our Iraq mission is gigantic. We plan for a freed Iraq to inspire and stabilize the entire Middle East and to promote democracy everywhere. What kind of bait-and-switch is the administration playing with the American people?

Rice answered that this is the way the world works. For example, we did not go into World War II to build a democratic Germany. Here Boxer interrupted. World War II, she told Rice curtly, has nothing to do with Iraq. Boxer had lost relatives in the Holocaust. No one had to tell her about World War II. But Rice’s analogy was exactly right. And by the way, using the Holocaust as a bat to beat political enemies over the head is demeaning to Jews and to human dignity. Having lost relatives in the Holocaust does not, in any case, confer expertise in U.S. history.

Hear hear! Anybody care to imagine a world today with Saddam still in full power, happily and cheerfully defying UN puppets and their puppet resolutions?

I hate told-you-so commentaries, but I hope I am forgiven when I reminisce here how in many heated debates it has always been my staunch position, that WMD never constituted a prerequisite for military action in order to bring about a regime change in Iraq.

If ever in modern times there is a legitimate analogy to Dictator Hitler, it surely is Dictator Saddam Hussein. Period. How many more innocent subjects did he have to torture, gas, summarily execute for the world to take note?!

So, again, nothing to do with issues, but much more to do with bullying tactics and political jostling.

BTW, As to WWII, I have yet to come across a more succinct summary of US involvement:

Which brings us to World War II. And, of course, Rice is dead right: Once the war was over, we spent years cultivating democracy in Japan and Germany. But we entered the war because Japan attacked us and, four days later, Adolf Hitler declared war on us. [be sure to read the whole post by David Gelernter]

9/11 is our very own Pearl Harbour. As to Iraq, Bush Senior together with Lady Thatcher didn't finish the job, something, Prime Minister Tony Blair for one knows only too well ought to have been done and constitutes one of Thatcher's great regrets. Had there have been the same commitment to liberate the Iraqi people then, coupled with the ripple effects in the region over a period of 10 years, a 9/11 may very well never have occurred. The analogy to WWII stands firm: Appeasement policies failed then, and restraint certainly proved misplaced during Iraq Part-1.

Boxer qualifies as a "porker" in her line of argument - or rather the lack of it - as her position is designed for effect (she clearly attempts to bash Rice no matter what) in return for partisan support. Much in the same pejorative meaning of the term "pork" when a congressman brings federal projects to his district in return for support, as is clearly the case with Senator Stevens of Alaska.

[North by Northwest]

What seems particularly audacious is the manner in which Stevens goes about attacking the proposal. Totally personal and totally devoid of dealing with any facts. That's what you get when you spend 35 years in the Senate. Issues no longer matter; they never did, but it takes years to cotton on that fact. And the oldies have but contempt for those poor souls who actually care about issues.... Rarely is it so obvious though. And rarely is it so utterly bipartisan in nature. This is true for politics in general and for Capitol Hill in particular. Somebody revive the spirit of Jimmy Stewart in "Mr Smith goes to Washington", please!

[Alexandra]

Absolutely, and despite positioning himself as the champion of the minority, and playing the 'equality' card there will be plenty of sweet deals ticking along in the background.
Why am I thinking 'Fargo' all the time....

[Rick Covert]

I suspect that were one to investigate real estate transfers over the past 18-24 months in the areas impacted by the "bridges to nowhere", the pressures felt by Sen. Stevens would shift in both origin and intensity.

[Rick Covert]

I suspect that were one to investigate real estate transfers over the past 18-24 months in the areas impacted by the "bridges to nowhere", the pressures felt by Sen. Stevens would shift in both origin and intensity.