Cut vote-buying pork

from war spending bill

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 2:33 AM CDT

Until this week we didn't even know what a menhaden was.

It's a fish. An Atlantic fish similar to shad that's processed for animal feed, among other things. This week it was caught up in Congress' net over the war spending bill that seeks the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of August, 2008.

What are Atlantic menhaden doing in a war spending bill?

Wooing votes. Votes of conservative Democrat and borderline GOP lawmakers as the House Democratic leadership pulls out all stops to try to get passage of the measure to set a pullout deadline and a timetable tied to performance benchmarks for the Iraqi government.

The $124 billion war spending bill, which could go to a House vote later this week, has been larded up with billions of dollars in pork aimed at securing the votes of congressmen whose districts would benefit. According to a Washington Post account this week, there is $120 million in it for shrimp and Atlantic menhaden fishermen; $25 million for spinach growers who suffered during last year's e. coli scare; $15 million for rice farmers in Louisiana; $500 million for wildfire suppression in the drought-stricken West; and $75 million for peanut storage (to garner the vote of three conservative Democrats).

All in all, the Democratic leadership has added some $21 billion in trinkets to the war bill, making it a grand Christmas tree of special interest spending.

That's shameful.

The Iraq War has split the country and the decision on spending authorization and troop withdrawal deadlines should be made on the merits of the arguments. Some Democrats oppose the bill because they don't believe it acts soon enough to bring American troops home; others see the current bill as a compromise. Many Republicans and some conservative Democrats view it as an abandonment of our nation's commitment to support Iraq's government and the rebuilding of the country and/or as a disastrous piece of legislation that would embolden terrorists.

There is plenty there to debate - honestly, heatedly, heartily.

But the future commitment of our American men and women in service halfway around the globe should not be based on browbeating a handful of congressmen by putting them in the position of voting against millions in dollars of home-state plums.

This is a vote of conscience and national policy, not a pig trough.

Leave the menhaden out of it.

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