RoVak: Pols "Unquenchable Demand for Pork"



Pigs: Be afraid; be very afraid. (image via CNN)

On the face of things that headline could be construed as vaguely "porny." Robert Novak, pork, unquenchable desires -- and whatnot. Allow us to put things into proper perspective. Robert Novak's obfuscations on the unquenchable demand for pork refer to naught else but sweet lobbyist ass, the kind that puts out for both parties. Now then, according to our favorite Dickensian villain, Robert Novak, or, as we like to call him, "RoVak":

"Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn may force their colleagues to make an up-or-down public decision on proposals such as tucking $2 million for a public park in San Francisco into the nation's massive military spending bill. Last Dec. 20, this bit of pork was passed by Congress without debate and without a vote in the final version of the Defense Appropriations Act."

(A considerable pause; the sucking of teeth) All this talk of "tucking" --and -- "this piece of pork." (Averted Gaze) We continue, once more, undeterred:

"McCain and Coburn last Wednesday proposed a revolutionary change in the way Congress has done more and more of its business over the last two decades. They announced their intention to 'challenge' future earmarks as a violation of Senate rules. That would have meant a roll call vote on each of the 15,268 special spending items in 2005 (nearly a fourfold increase over the previous decade) that individual members quietly slipped into massive bills in the dead of the night."

Brilliant. McCain, when all is said and done (excepting his being on the wrong side of gay marriage), may be regardes as one of the greatest Senate strategists -- Naval Academy training? -- of all time; more:

"Arizona's McCain, a lonely voice in the Senate battling the bipartisan taste for pork, was joined last year by newly elected Tom Coburn, the flinty obstetrician from Muskogee, Okla. Even their combined voices probably would not have been heard were it not for the Jack Abramoff lobbyist scandal. Now, the unquenchable demand for pork by politicians that consumed $27 billion last year could be endangered."

Brava. (The Corsair hoists a Tour D'argent 1885 Burgundy to The Senator)

RoVak on "The Other White Meat"