Should McCain win, earmarks may be out


o what did the prominent Republican senator do after telling the world that the idea of John McCain being president "sends a cold chill down my spine?" He endorsed him, of course.

Like many Republicans, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi is being forced to follow the advice of McCain's 95-year-old mother, which was to hold their noses and vote for her son. It is not easy holding one's nose while one's spine is chilling. But if you're a Mississippi Republican senator, up for re-election, what are you going to do, endorse the Democratic woman or the black guy?

No wonder Thad is sad. He will have to spend the next 10 months saying nice things about a candidate whose presidency quick-freezes his backbone. If McCain wins, the unfortunate Thad faces at least four years of spinal discomfort and who knows what side effects? That's a chilling prospect, if you will pardon the pun, for a gentleman of 71, which makes him as old as his candidate.

It's been a tough campaign season for Thad, who was in danger of becoming a serial endorser. First, he endorsed Fred Thompson for president and when Fred proved comatose, he endorsed Mitt Romney.

It was in the Romney phase of his president-making that Thad revealed the ill effects he suffered from the prospect of a McCain presidency. He also confided that McCain is erratic, hotheaded and loses his temper. "He worries me," said the worried senator, but apparently not enough to withhold his endorsement.


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Nothing seems to be going right for the party of George W. Bush. Offered a field of candidates that did not appear to rise above the qualities of the worst president we ever had, Republican voters have chosen the best of the lot, but a candidate nearly half of them cannot abide.

And what's wrong with McCain? Different fringes of his party despise him for different reasons, possibly as a way of showing their diversity in the hate department. He supports extending Bush's tax cuts but was against them originally on the reasonable grounds that sacrifice was necessary in wartime. This inspires the contempt of the sizeable voting bloc that believes the Republican Party exists to lower taxes. But that's not all. He's anti-abortion, but not supportive of an anti-abortion constitutional amendment. He doesn't bash immigrants or gays and he isn't fond of torture, a form of interrogation that enjoys widespread support among Republican candidates who never had an opportunity to be tortured themselves.

And where does the aforementioned Sen. Thad Cochran fit in this mélange? He appears to be most discomfited by McCain's condemnation of earmarks,

those home state projects so dear to all but five of the 100 United States senators of both parties who habitually sneak pet pork into bills that can be passed without debating their merits.

Senator Cochran is the king of earmarks. As the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, he's in the best position for pork sneaking and he has done it to the tune of $837 million. That's more than three-quarters of a billion dollars in goodies for the great state of Mississippi.

If McCain becomes president, he says he'd eliminate earmarks and that's chilling enough to cause a Mississippi hard frost in August.


Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. E-mail him at dahles@hotmail.com.


 

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