Knee deep in swamp water

Way back in history, not even a decade ago, the Democrats swept the Republicans out of office capturing the White House , the Senate and the House. This electoral landslide should remind us all that political power is fleeting. This particular election of 2008 should be a reminder to the current GOPers in control of what took them from power eight years ago. There was the wars in Iran and Iraq. There was W's maddening failure to defend himself. And there was mass defections of voters in the Republican Party, mostly over the profligate spending in Congress. I opined at the time that the Republicans spent like drunken sailors, only their excess was an insult to inebriated mariners. Remember the famous "bridge to nowhere"? I wrote at the time that if Republicans were going to spend like Democrats, the voters might as well elect the real thing.

It is with concern that I read that Congressional Republicans are fighting to remove the ban on earmarks. These are little spending projects politicians throw into the budget to get funding for special projects back home; a library here, a new highway there. It all sounds great, but the process was abused and used to pay back bribes, buy votes, get political donations. Half of the roads, bridges, and public buildings in West Virginia bear the Byrd name from his earmarks.  The problem is that a million here, a billion there, and the next thing you know we are spending some real money.

If the GOP is draining the swamp they must be sending all of that fetid water and stinky mud into a larger swamp more to their liking.

This is not what we voted for.