John Thune Changes his Tune on Earmarks

Thune had been rumored to be against earmarks and has since decided to support it.  The main reason that I am interested in this is due to how he worded his mea culpa.  On Monday afternoon after the November Speaks rally my friend Sandy and I went to every office of republican senators that we heard were against the ban to leave notes.  The notes that we left very specifically said that we understood that earmarks are not a great deal of the total budget, what we really are opposed to is how they are used to basically bribe senators to vote yeah on tough votes.  Listen to what he says. 

Senate Porkers

Many things are flying under the radar as we pay attention to the healthcare debate that is currently in the house.  One of these is the fact that Sen. DeMint put forth a bill that would ban earmarks for one year in all legislation.  We are in major debt and it just keeps getting worse.  The least our government should do is to have an open and transparent process of where the money is going, not sticking in earmarks at the last minute, which means many senators don't even know what they are voting on nor is there any debate on if the money should be spent on that particular thing.  Here is how the vote went:


Senate Vote On 1-Year Earmark Moratorium



Yes = Supported Earmark Ban


No = Opposed Earmark Ban


Republican Hall of Shame



Alabama: Sessions (R), Yes --- Shelby (R), No

Alaska: Begich (D), No --- Murkowski (R), No

Arizona: Kyl (R),Yes --- McCain (R), Yes

Arkansas: Lincoln (D), No --- Pryor (D), No

California: Boxer (D), No --- Feinstein (D), No

Colorado: Bennet (D), No --- Udall (D), No

Connecticut: Dodd (D), No --- Lieberman (I), No

Delaware: Carper (D), No --- Kaufman (D), Yes

Florida: LeMieux (R), Yes --- Nelson (D), No

Georgia: Chambliss (R), Yes --- Isakson (R), Yes

Hawaii: Akaka (D), No --- Inouye (D), No

Idaho: Crapo (R), Yes --- Risch (R), Yes

Illinois: Burris (D), No --- Durbin (D), No

Indiana: Bayh (D), Yes --- Lugar (R), No

Iowa: Grassley (R), Yes --- Harkin (D), No

Kansas: Brownback (R), Yes --- Roberts (R), No

Kentucky: Bunning (R), No --- McConnell (R), Yes

Louisiana: Landrieu (D), No --- Vitter (R), Yes

Maine: Collins (R), No --- Snowe (R), No

Maryland: Cardin (D), No --- Mikulski (D), No

Massachusetts: Brown (R), Yes --- Kerry (D), No

Michigan: Levin (D), No --- Stabenow (D), No

Minnesota: Franken (D), No --- Klobuchar (D), No

Mississippi: Cochran (R), No --- Wicker (R), No

Missouri: Bond (R), No --- McCaskill (D), Yes

Montana: Baucus (D), No --- Tester (D), Didn't Vote

Nebraska: Johanns (R), Yes --- Nelson (D), No

Nevada: Ensign (R), Yes --- Reid (D), No

New Hampshire: Gregg (R), No --- Shaheen (D), No

New Jersey: Lautenberg (D), No --- Menendez (D), No

New Mexico: Bingaman (D), No --- Udall (D), No

New York: Gillibrand (D), No --- Schumer (D), No

North Carolina: Burr (R), Yes --- Hagan (D), No

North Dakota: Conrad (D), No --- Dorgan (D), No

Ohio: Brown (D), No --- Voinovich (R), No

Oklahoma: Coburn (R), Yes --- Inhofe (R), No

Oregon: Merkley (D), No --- Wyden (D), No

Pennsylvania: Casey (D), No --- Specter (D), No

Rhode Island: Reed (D), No --- Whitehouse (D), No

South Carolina: DeMint (R), Yes --- Graham (R), Yes

South Dakota: Johnson (D), No --- Thune (R), Yes

Tennessee: Alexander (R), No --- Corker (R), Yes

Texas: Cornyn (R), Yes --- Hutchison (R), No


Utah: Bennett (R), Didn't Vote --- Hatch (R), Yes


Vermont: Leahy (D), No --- Sanders (I), No


Virginia: Warner (D), No --- Webb (D), No (lucky me)

Washington: Cantwell (D), No --- Murray (D), No

West Virginia: Byrd (D), Didn't Vote --- Rockefeller (D), No

Wisconsin: Feingold (D), Yes --- Kohl (D), No

Wyoming: Barrasso (R), Yes --- Enzi (R), Yes