With John Murtha’s plan to slowly end the war in Iraq mired in controversy and unable to get broad support, and the Democratic leadership’s plan to rewrite the 2002 authorization for war going nowhere, the Democrats have turned to a different tactic.
Loading a war spending bill with pork.
Seriously, that’s the best the Dems, who control both houses of Congress, can do. From today’s Washington Post:
While Democrats try to restrict how President Bush can spend the $100 billion he wants for Iraq, they also hope to load his measure up with $10 billion in add-ons…
Lawmakers from the Great Plains are pressing for about $4 billion in disaster aid for farmers suffering under drought conditions.
The California delegation is demanding help for citrus, avocado and other Central Valley farmers facing $1.2 billion in losses from a devastating January freeze.
And so on and so on. Mind you, the idea here isn’t to pump the bill so full of special interest spending that Bush has to veto it. No, the idea is to take advantage of the fact that Bush and Congressional Republicans would never have the cojones to stop a war spending bill, and thus push through a lot of favorite projects.
What? Seriously, what? Talk about having a tin ear. Didn’t the Democrats ride into Congress promising to end the march of bills swollen on earmarks and Republican pork barrel projects? Are they seriously proposing this right now?
