During the presidential campaign, the compliant liberal press believed every word Barack Obama said. Or at least they pretended they did. They assured us that when their man was elected president, he would do as he promised by eliminating earmarks and emasculating lobbyists.
Oops. Turns out there are 9,000-some earmarks in the “stimulus” bill. And lobbyists go to see the document before members of the House and Senate did.
John McCain doesn’t like it and went ballistic on the floor of the senate yesterday. “If it sounds like I’m angry,” he roared, “it’s because I am.”
His anti-earmark oratory was the kind of speech that’s rarely heard in the Senate. McCain hurled invective at President Obama, Democrats and Republicans and he used words that are equally rare in the Washington, DC gentlemen’s club known as the U.S. Senate.
“I just went through a campaign, Mr. President, where both candidates promised change in Washington, promised change from the wasteful, disgraceful, corrupting practice of earmark, pork-barrel spending,” McCain seethed. “So what are we doing here? Not only business as usual, but an outrageous insult to the American people.”
If the Arizona Republican had shown this kind of fire on the campaign trail, he might be president today.
Watch the entire five-minute video. For once, John McCain seems a lot more like “Mr. Smith goes to Washington” and a lot less like Captain Queeg.
