An Ode to the Stimulus Bill

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

The economy is in crisis, and we are so relieved that the Senate has finally gone to work debating the critical stimulus plan and ...

Oh, dear Lord. John McCain is making a speech about earmarks.

“... $188,000 for the Lobster Institute, which includes a lobster cam at the bottom of the ocean that so far we haven’t been able to work!”

Earmarks, you will remember, are those frequently porky little bits of appropriations for specific projects that legislators like to stick into budgets. During the presidential race, McCain gave the definite impression that earmarks were a threat to the nation’s well-being — second only to radical Islamic fundamentalism.

And although McCain lost the election (by a lot, really), Barack Obama still made a point of saying that there would be no earmarks in the stimulus bill.

(More here.)