Check out Rob’s letter to the editor.
Check out Rob’s letter to the editor in today’s Grand Forks Herald.
MINOT — I had to chuckle when I read former Democratic candidate (and former aide to Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.) Kristin Hedger’s column in favor of earmarks — aka government pork — in the Saturday Herald (“Congressional earmarks serve a vital national purpose,” Page A4).
I’m not surprised that Hedger loves government pork given that her family’s business, Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing, got a big, juicy earmark courtesy of her old boss. To quote from an August press release from Dorgan’s office: “U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad … have secured more than $8 million to help KMM develop new technologies for the military.”
It’s easy to be in favor of pork spending when you’re more on the getting end than on the giving end. Chalk it up to the enticing allure of other people’s money.
On a serious note, however, I’d point out that Dorgan’s direction of public money to his political supporters is exactly the sort of political backscratching that gives earmark appropriations a bad name.
Rob Port
Port is the owner of Say Anything blog, http://www.sayanythingblog.com.
