Of course, it never really had a chance to pass in the first place, but the gesture was worth it

The U.S. Senate has shot down an amendment by a South Carolina senator to pull more than $2 million earmarked for Berkeley school lunches, ferry service and police communication equipment and transfer it to the Marine Corps. After the Berkeley City Council called the U.S. Marines “uninvited and unwelcome intruders,” Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., introduced the Semper Fi Act on Feb. 6 to rescind the funds earmarked for Berkeley in the 2008 fiscal year Omnibus Appropriations bill.

Last Thursday, the Senate voted 41-57 to defeat DeMint’s amendment, prompting DeMint to say that he is “extremely disappointed that the U.S. Senate was not willing to stand up for our Marines when they do so much to stand up for us.”

“When Berkeley officials called our Marines uninvited and unwelcome intruders it was outrageous and their actions should have consequences,” DeMint said in a statement. “If Berkeley wants to insult our troops, they should do it with their own money.”

Here’s how the vote came out.  The vote was last week but I missed it.  Both of North Dakota’s Senators voted against ending the funding.

So why didn’t this pass?  Certainly not even most Democrats in Congress would go so far as to say that the Marines shouldn’t be allowed in Berkeley, and there is federal law which requires cooperation with recruiters in exchange for federal tax dollars, but what we were talking about here were earmarks.  That’s right, pork.  And while the Republicans were out in force to make a symbolic gesture here, I doubt very many in Congress want to start playing political games with their pork barrel money.