Congressional Republicans are quickly realizing that being in the minority isn’t all that bad.
Freed from the responsibility of actually passing legislation, you can snipe and obstruct and throw sabots into the machinery.
One thing that’s great about being in the minority is you can force the majority party to own particularly embarrassing pieces of pork-barrel spending that inevitably find their way into every major bill.
This practice, and the joys of exposing it, have been in evidence during the weeks-long stimulus package debate.
The latest target for GOP scorn?
Nancy Pelosi’s love of the salt marsh harvest mouse!
The conservative WASHINGTON TIMES is fired up and ready to go:
Talk about a pet project. A tiny mouse with the longtime backing of a political giant may soon reap the benefits of the economic-stimulus package.
Lawmakers and administration officials divulged Wednesday that the $789 billion economic stimulus bill being finalized behind closed doors in Congress includes $30 million for wetlands restoration that the Obama administration intends to spend in the San Francisco Bay Area to protect, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents the city of San Francisco and has previously championed preserving the mouse’s habitat in the Bay Area.
The revelation immediately became a political football, as Republicans accused Democrats of reneging on a promise to keep so-called earmarks that fund lawmakers’ favorite projects out of the legislation. Democrats, including Mrs. Pelosi, countered that the accusations were fabricated.
[...]
“One of the proudest boasts of Democrats supporting their trillion-dollar spending plan is that it doesn’t contain earmarks. But it seems like powerful Democrats will still find a way to bring home the bacon,” said a frustrated Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, who took direct aim at the mouse.
“This certainly doesn’t sound like it will create or save American jobs,” Mr. Steel said. “So can Speaker Pelosi explain exactly how we will improve the American economy by helping the adorable little” critter?
Well, the salt marsh harvest mouse certainly seems like an interesting little beast…
It hides during the day and comes out at night, it’s one of the only mammals that drinks salt water, and it can only be found in the salt marshes of the South Bay.
We don’t object to spending money to save this creature per se; however, with stimulus spending under a conservative electron microscope, Speaker Pelosi really needs to pick her spots when it comes to earmarking funds for San Fran.
And it’s our contention that she has really dropped the ball on this one.
Why spend valuable stimulus funds to save a little rodent when there is another cause in the city of San Francisco crying out for federal assistance – one that is far more stimulative than any mouse could ever be!!
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