Speaking of earmarks...and pigs...and lipstick...

It didn't get much airplay, but the watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste, issued their report on top earmarkers a couple weeks ago. The results:

• Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) 2007 rating was 10 percent, making his lifetime score 18 percent. The 2008 Congressional Pig Book contained 53 earmarks worth $97.4 million for Sen. Obama, including $1,648,850 for the Shedd Aquarium.
  
• Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) received the worst possible rating in 2007 with 0 percent, while his lifetime rating is 22 percent. According to the Pig Book, Sen. Biden had 70 earmarks for a total of $119.7 million in fiscal year 2008, including $246,100 for the Grand Opera House in Wilmington.
  
• Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) received a score of 100 percent and has a lifetime rating of 88, has never requested nor received a single earmark, and has pledged to veto any spending bill that contains any earmarks. (Sen. McCain was only present for 11 of the 35 Senate votes that CCAGW tallied. Therefore, he was not eligible for the Taxpayer Super Hero Award)

And, in case you missed it, 0bama got $3.4M in earmarks for Joe Biden's lobbyist son's clients.

In this December 2007 article (so, before anyone could accuse her of posturing to be VP), the Seattle Times reports that the Alaska governor's office (that'd be Sarah Palin) was asking for far fewer earmarks to restore Alaska's image. Clearly, Sarah Palin was out ahead on this issue, despite the protestations of the pork-meisters in the Congressional delegation (all Republicans, by the way).

You know, 0bama is right, no matter how much you put lipstick on it, it really is still a pig!