The Evans-Novak Political Report for October 11, 2006.

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Republicanism versus Repansycanism: Do you know the difference?

You better.

Remember, kiddies, even Repansycans are better than Democrasses.

Earmarks: As they stared down the barrel of minority status in Congress, Republicans signaled their dedication to pork-barrel spending before recessing for mid-term election campaigning. Behind closed doors, the GOP's King of Pork dressed down the party's leading foe of earmarks. The last bill passed before the pre-election break was filled with carefully hidden pork.

Freshman Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) continues to upset the Senate's old bulls with his crusade against appropriations earmarks. Coburn successfully added to the Defense Appropriations bill a provision requiring the Pentagon to grade the unauthorized spending attached to appropriations bills by congressmen. But once the bill had passed both houses of Congress, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) stripped Coburn's provision out of the conference report, contending that it would hurt the Republican Party. Stevens, the Senate's president pro tempore and its senior Republican, reflects a majority in both parties defending pork.

The House then passed the final version by a wide margin, but without the Coburn provision and with about 2,800 earmarks worth approximately $11 billion. That made a mockery of a House-passed "transparency" rule, supposedly intended to discourage earmarks. The rule's biggest loophole restricts earmarks to "non-federal" spending, which would absolve larcenous former Congressman Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) of earmarking. By definition, all Defense expenditures are "federal," even though many end up in the hands of a private beneficiary. This is why, on page 336 of the bill's conference report, it states that it contains no earmarks whatsoever.

The earmark process enables the Congressional-Industrial Complex to fund projects not desired by the military, and which often come at the expense of genuine military needs. The $5.5 million for an unrequested telescope at the Air Force Academy may come out of money for night-vision combat goggles. President Bush signed the Defense bill on September 29 because its overall spending is within his budget, but it requires transferring funds from needed military programs to politicians' pet projects.

Also among the unrequested earmarks: 10 C-17 Globemaster cargo planes produced by Boeing, 60 F-22A Raptor stealth fighters -- not supported by the Pentagon and opposed by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Warner (R-Va.) -- and $4.6 million for the Army Center for Excellence in Acoustics at the Jamie Whitten Center at the University of Mississippi.

When it comes to earmarks generally, Republican cluelessness is typified by Sen. Conrad Burns, who trails for re-election in Montana. Burns said that opposition to all earmarks by his Democratic opponent, State Sen. Jon Tester, "showed us how reckless and out of touch he is." Burns then issued a press release listing his earmarks, totaling more than $775 million, including $60 million for the Fort Peck Fish Hatchery.

Coburn plans to press his Defense report card as a freestanding bill in the lame-duck session. Perhaps more importantly, irrespective of which party controls the Senate next year, he plans to deny unanimous consent on spending measures and require 60 votes to end debate. The question is whether Republican leaders, perhaps chastened by election returns, will join him.