PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Robert Novak notes the GOP’s pork dilemma:
Mitch McConnell has proved an effective minority leader who has kept his 49 senators remarkably unified. What is often overlooked is that McConnell is the first Senate Republican leader in nearly half a century with a seat on the Appropriations Committee. Sen. Lamar Alexander, newly elected chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and a McConnell ally, is also an appropriator. So are Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Conference vice chairman, and the canny Robert Bennett, McConnell’s close adviser who sits at the leadership table as the minority leader’s counsel. These Senate GOP leaders opt for pork as the party reaches a fork in the road.
That fork offers choices not only for current government spending but also for the Republican future. One way pressed by conservative reformers would either block an omnibus bill or stop it by sustaining a presidential veto, insisting on a CR that would save taxpayers $30 billion a year. The other course makes a deal with an omnibus bill $8 billion to $11 billion over Bush’s guidelines, virtually forcing him to sign it by inserting troop money, further depressing the demoralized Republican voter base. That was the course McConnell clearly indicated last week.
Most likely result: McConnell will remain an effective minority leader for some time . . . .
UPDATE: David Hauptmann emails:
I’m the new media advisor for Sen. McConnell. I saw your post based on Robert Novak’s column today and wanted to point out that the column isn’t accurate in its description of where Sen. McConnell stands on the omnibus bill.
In fact, he agrees with Congressman Boehner and the president on the overspending in the proposed omnibus. Here is his statement from Saturday:
Statement from OMB director Jim Nussle:The New York Times also has it correct in this story.
Glad to hear it.