Some GOP critics love their earmarks

Sen.
David Vitter (R-La.) and other Republicans are drawing criticism for sponsoring
hundreds of millions of earmarks in the $410 billion omnibus that they
themselves have blasted as fiscally irresponsible.

Vitter is the most obvious target
because he holds himself a fiscal conservative, a position that often serves
him well. In the midst of a heated debate over earmarks, however, Vitter finds
himself ducking charges of hypocrisy.

{mosads}The criticisms undercut the GOP’s
weekend effort to frame omnibus as a Democratic Christmas tree.

“Even though Vitter has been styling himself
as a fiscal conservative he has been more willing to team up with [Democratic
Sen. Mary] Landrieu [La.] and belly up to the bar and take more than his fair
share of earmarks,” said Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for
Common Sense, a group that tracks earmarks.

Vitter, for example, threatened to hold
up Senate action on the omnibus unless Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.)
promised him a vote on an amendment to eliminate automatic pay increases for
lawmakers.

“In a lot of ways he’s trying have his
cake and eat it too,” said Ellis. “He talks about being fiscal conservative and
then brags back home what he was able to deliver to the state.”

John Alyosius Farrell, Tip
O’Neill’s biographer, singled Vitter out for ridicule on the Thomas Jefferson
Street blog.

“The self-righteousness among
Republicans on the issue of government spending is rank and overwhelming. The
GOP is acting as if federal spending is a Democratic monopoly.”

The Huffington Post, a liberal-leaning
online publication, ran an article discussing Vitter’s earmarks entitled, “Red
States Gobble Up Omnibus Earmarks.”

This barrage of criticism comes as a
surprise considering that Vitter has positioned himself as one of the
staunchest fiscal conservatives in the Senate.

Vitter, however, defends his actions
even while he criticizes the torrid spending pace Congress has set in the last
six months.

“I have strongly supported fundamental
spending reform, including complete openness and transparency and significantly
lower budget number,” Vitter told The Hill in a statement. “As I do that,
though, I am proud to stand by my specific funding requests for critical
transportation, law enforcement and hurricane recovery needs.”

“These represent serious
Louisiana needs, which have not been met even as Congress has passed trillion
dollar spending and bailout bills,” said Vitter.

Vitter, of course, represents
New Orleans, which is still recovering from the catastrophe of Hurricane
Katrina.

A study of nearly 9,000 earmarks in the
omnibus showed that showed that Vitter is the fifth-biggest recipient of
earmarked funds in the Congress.

Vitter has sponsored or cosponsored
nearly $250 million in earmarks, according to the study by Taxpayers for Common
Sense.

Two other Republicans topped the list of
biggest earmarkers: Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.), senior Republican on the Appropriations
Committee; and Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss). Of the ten lawmakers who sponsored or
cosponsored the largest sums of earmarked funds, 6 were Republicans.

Several of them, such as Cochran and
Sens. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), are members of the
Appropriations panel.

This has caused grumbling on
conservative Websites.

A contributor to a discussion forum on
conservative television host Sean Hannity’s website lamented that Cochran,
Wicker and Vitter were three of the biggest sponsors of earmarks in the omnibus.

“So much for GOP fiscal responsibility,”
griped the anonymous commentator.

“Leading
Republicans in the House and Senate pushed for a better solution: a spending freeze that would
strip the omnibus bill of all its airdropped earmarks and hold government
spending at current levels,” House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio), wrote
in an opinion editorial published Saturday. “Democratic leaders in both
chambers scoffed at this common-sense proposal.”

Vitter managed to steer hundreds of
millions of dollars to his home state despite not serving on Appropriations by
teaming up with a Democrat, Landrieu, his home state colleague.

As a member of the Appropriations panel
who faced a difficult re-election last year, Landrieu received special
consideration from Democratic leaders who ultimately control Congress’s purse
strings.

Landrieu sponsored more money in
earmarks than any Democrat in Congress.

Nevertheless, Vitter told the New
Orleans Times-Picayune that he would vote against the omnibus because it is
“just too expensive.”

Vitter
claimed it is not inconsistent to win money for projects in a bill likely to
become law but vote against it because of broad fiscal concerns.