Over at RedState.com this morning, Rob Bluey of The Heritage Foundation has a post up describing the attacks on Rep. John Campbell, R-CA, for his brief sponsorship of a bill that provided for a desalinization project in his home district.
The earmarkers are accusing Campbell – a vigorous opponent of earmarking – of hypocrisy. Bluey explains:
“There is some dispute as to whether Campbell’s bill amounted to the definition of an ‘earmark’ because it was a stand-alone bill, which followed the normal legislative process. But because it would have authorized the expenditure of $2.5 million for a desalination project in his district, it was close enough to prompt Campbell to withdraw it from consideration.
“Campbell’s decision to pull the bill came on the same day, Feb. 12, he visited the Heritage Foundation, where he attacked Republican earmarks and criticized Republicans for not going far enough in their pursuit of reform. The smear campaign against Campbell dates back to at least to that day. I know because I received an e-mail tip from a Republican Hill staffer who prodded me to question Campbell about the desalination project; I didn’t take the bait.
“Feeling unsatisfied two weeks later, someone in the GOP ranks leaked the information to The Hill, which reported the story Wednesday night.”
Frankly, I am surprised there hasn’t been more of this kind of thinly veiled attack on many of the GOPers who are now doing everything in their power to eradicate the earmark addiction from Congress.
If the earmarkers have anything remotely like a genuine commitment to restoring limited government, they should, as House Minority Leader John Boehner said in another context, get up off their “dead asses” and get to work. Otherwise, all they are doing is bribing the Big Government alligator to eat them last.
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