Wow! It didn't take long for Paul Hodes to get on the pork barrel train in Washington. On March 23, Hodes voted for a large slab of bacon, which he had pledged during his recent campaign he would not do.
He voted for $20 billion more than the president asked for as emergency war spending. Added to the bill by the Democrats were such urgent items as $24 million to spinach farmers in California, $75 million for peanut storage in Georgia and $15 million to protect Louisiana rice fields from saltwater. There is also $120 million for shrimp and menhaden fishermen.
And there is more: $250 million for milk subsidies, $500 million for wildfire suppression and $1.3 billion to build levees in New Orleans.
All of these were part of the "emergency" appropriation for the troops in Iraq. Yet none of these projects are in any way related to an emergency appropriation for the war in Iraq.
As the liberal Washington Post said in its editorial about the war appropriation: "House Democratic leadership has come up with more than $20 billion in new spending, much of it wasteful subsidies to agriculture or pork barrel projects aimed at individual members of Congress."
The legislation pays more heed to a handful of peanut farmers than to our troops.
As the Post concluded, the Democrats "should not seek to use pork to buy a majority for an unconditional retreat." But that is exactly what they did.
During his campaign Hodes also said that he would listen to the commanders on the ground. He has chosen to listen to the cardinals of the Appropriations Committee.
On another note, as recently as Feb. 7, in a letter to President Bush, Hodes and other Democrats said they supported the conclusions of the Iraq Study Group. It is a shame the letter writers had not read the report.
On page 73 of the 96-page book version, it says the Iraq Study Group could support "a short-term redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize Baghdad . . . if the U.S. Commander in Iraq determines that such steps would be effective."
New ground commander General Petraeus believes such steps could be successful. Thus, once again, February's letter is ignored in March's vote. Hodes's support for the commander on the ground is out the window.
Democrats who want to force a withdrawal should not be seeking to use pork to buy a majority in the House. I am disappointed that Hodes, in just three short months, has forgotten what he said he wanted to go to Washington to do. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
(Chuck Douglas, a Concord lawyer, is a former 2nd District congressman.)
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By CHUCK DOUGLAS
For the Monitor