How tea party senators stared down Mitch McConnell on earmark ban

[seafan]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Washington —

In a surprise reversal, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky announced today that he will join House GOP leaders in voting to ban “earmarks” – member projects often criticized as pork barrel spending – thus avoiding an early clash with tea party freshmen committed to ending the practice.

The issue was seen as a litmus test of how far the Republican leadership would go to satisfy freshmen lawmakers and the tea party movement that propelled some of them to victory. In the past, Senate Republicans have defended their right to use earmarks, but the process has been a primary tea party complaint.

Senator McConnell's decision suggests that, in Round 1 at least, the GOP establishment blinked first.

.....

The move came on the eve of a Senate Republican caucus vote on Tuesday that was shaping up as an early test of the clout the 16-member GOP freshmen class – the largest class for Republicans since 1980.

Republican freshmen Sens.-elect Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Mike Lee of Utah took the lead organizing GOP freshmen to push for an earmark ban, despite the expected opposition of current Senate GOP leaders. On Friday, Mr. Lee, in an e-mail, called on the GOP caucus to hold a public, recorded vote on this issue, rather than the scheduled vote by secret ballot.



Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/content/view/print/343720

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Funny, how newly-minted Senator-elect Marco Rubio wants to bury his own lengthy history on earmarks for his hometown of Miami as he *takes the lead on banishing earmarks* in Washington.


Rubio's campaign image belies history of $250 million in pork requests, March 10, 2010

Republican U.S. Senate front-runner Marco Rubio brags on his Web site that he didn't officially request budget pork in his last four years as a leader in the Florida House.

But during Rubio's eight years in office — including the final two when he was House speaker — he unofficially helped push loads of hometown spending: $250 million, according to a Times/Herald analysis of little-known budget documents.

The budget items linked to Rubio from 2000 to 2008 are part of a list compiled yearly by the governor's office to track hometown spending.

Most of Rubio's budget items benefited his home county of Miami-Dade — from a $50,000 grant sought for a Coral Gables park to $80 million for a University of Miami genomics project. A total of $25 million in requests were vetoed by the governor.

The amount of budget money connected to Rubio attests to his skill as a lawmaker but also contrasts with his campaign image as a tight-fisted spending hawk crusading against "earmarks'' that have plagued the budget process in Washington.

Rubio wouldn't comment and his campaign referred questions to consultant Albert Martinez, who worked in the House under Rubio.

.....

[theoldman]

1. Ear marks are not the only way to get public money.

[geckosfeet]

2. bitch mCconnell was just playing hard to get

[Doctor_J]

3. the teabaggers got Bitch's attention

too bad the lefties were unable to get the president's attention two years ago

[Countdown_3_2_1]

4. Hmmmm. Veto or Not? Who to root for. (nt)

[StarsInHerHair]

5. so a small group of TPs has been able to force the GOP to

change their way of doing something & yet the Dems with a much larger group have not.

[Blacksheep214]

6. Damn Turtles anyway!

Screw this son of a bitch. He doesn't give a shit about us regular citizens!

[Javaman]

7. oh so now paul is back being against ear marks.

first he was against them. got elected. then was for them. then other ball lickers stood their ground. now paul is against them. wow.