What gets me is the hypocrisy. McConnell, yes Mitch Mcconell, who won re-election in '06 by bragging Robert Byrd style, about all the pork he brought home to Ky. now is lambasting the Dems for earmarks? Oh, wait, how many does he have?

Honestly, its times like these that I remember why I used to admire McCain. Total earmarks? Zero. Him, I'll listen to. The new GOP leadership, which is the same as the old GOP leadership, Tea Party be damned, can pound sand. They are hypocrites to a man.
I'll accept earmarks for small projects, like weed control in wheat fields, or fixing a bridge or the like. Not every nicklel and dime project can be vetted thoroughly and many make good sense. Still, there ought to be accountability. This could be done by giving each rep a "discretionary budget" of say a few million to deal with small local issues and then requiring them to publish these in their state/district. Maybe it is the right thing to do to spend $500k to eliminate pythons in the glades or fund a new medical research lab at (insert your state here) University or to fund vaccination programs. I have little problem with this. Just give me a budget and accountability on who's funding what and why and let the voters decide. Hiding it in the budget where only the donors who got payback and a few watch dog groups see it is unacceptable.
FQ13