Tea Party Power: Mich McConnell now supports Earmark ban

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Mitch McConnell reverses; backs earmark ban

By: Manu Raju

November 15, 2010 02:35 PM EST

As he worked the phones over the past week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell concluded he was in a no-win situation over earmarks.

The Kentucky Republican could dig in and fight a proposed ban on earmarks, opening him up to attacks from his party’s right wing that he’s protecting wasteful pork-barrel spending. He could avoid taking a position publicly on the proposed ban and risk looking indecisive.

Or he could side with earmark detractors — and look as though he had capitulated in the first big test of his authority by the aggressive Sen. Jim DeMint-wing of the Republican Caucus, while forgoing what he believes are valuable projects he directs to Kentucky every year.

Sensing the political appeal lay squarely with earmark foes, McConnell stunned official Washington on Monday by saying he would support a two-year ban on the pet projects.

“What I’ve concluded is that on the issue of congressional earmarks, as the leader of my party in the Senate, I have to lead first by example,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Nearly every day that the Senate’s been in session for the past two years, I have come down to this spot and said that Democrats are ignoring the wishes of the American people. When it comes to earmarks, I won’t be guilty of the same thing.”

With McConnell’s support, it seems increasingly likely that the 47-member GOP Conference would vote to accept the earmark moratorium, which has been proposed by DeMint of South Carolina and Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn. In so doing, it would set up a battle with Senate Democrats who will still write their own appropriations bills and have shown little appetite to ban the pet projects.

While senior GOP senators fiercely defend their right to earmark, McConnell decided in the end that he’d rather pick a fight with Senate Democrats than with conservative members of his own party — particularly on a day when 13 new GOP freshmen came to Capitol Hill, vowing to change the ways of Washington.

In one sense, the decision is vintage McConnell, who typically consults with his caucus and weighs the political blowback before taking a policy position. But over the years, McConnell has at times ducked taking a strong stance on issues that divide his caucus — whether it has been immigration reform in 2007 or earmark reform earlier this year.

McConnell kept his decision close to his vest, consulting with only his closest confidants and giving some senior staffers only hours of advance notice before making a decision that could seriously change how billions of dollars are spent in the appropriations process in the coming Congress.

“I certainly understand he’s under pressure from members here on our side of the aisle to dramatize our aim and that is to try to restrain the growth of spending,” said Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee and the biggest earmarker in the Senate, who got a heads-up phone call from McConnell before the announcement.

Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma’s other GOP senator, who has battled to keep earmarks, said that he “totally did not expect” McConnell’s decision.

McConnell secured $113 million from 58 earmarks last year and ran his 2008 campaign on his ability to deliver projects to Kentucky. And McConnell has repeatedly rejected the idea of a GOP-only ban, saying doing so would do little to rein in the budget deficit and would transfer power to the White House by giving it enormous power to set spending priorities.

“Make no mistake. I know the good that has come from the projects I have helped support throughout my state. I don’t apologize for them,” McConnell said. “But there is simply no doubt that the abuse of this practice has caused Americans to view it as a symbol of the waste and the out-of-control spending that every Republican in Washington is determined to fight. And unless people like me show the American people that we’re willing to follow through on small or even symbolic things, we risk losing them on our broader efforts to cut spending and rein in government.”

In the moments after he made the announcement, Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee announced his backing of the ban, so did several others, such as Maine’s moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe.

With the White House also taking a harder line on the issue, and House GOP leaders calling on President Barack Obama to veto all spending bills with earmarks, it remains to be seen how they’ll avert a potential standoff with Senate Democrats on the matter.

In a statement, Obama said he welcomed McConnell’s decision to “join me and members of both parties who support cracking down on wasteful earmark spending.”

But it’s clear that his fellow Democrats in the Senate weren’t ready to accept McConnell’s proposition.

“That’s devastating,” West Virginia Sen. John Rockefeller told POLITICO. “It’s devastating for rural and poor people for water systems and broadband. I don’t think the earmark process would disappear.”

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said “it’s up to each senator” to decide whether to direct funding to a state.

“From delivering $100 million in military projects for Nevada to funding education and public transportation projects in the state, Sen. Reid makes no apologies for delivering for the people of Nevada,” Manley said. “He will always fight to ensure the state’s needs are met.”

Darren Samuelsohn and Scott Wong contributed to this report.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45141.html