One of Limbaugh's substitute hosts mentioned Ron Paul puts his earmarks in the bills. Then, he votes against the bills, decrying all the pork while expecting the bills to pass. That way, he could maintain his squeaky-clean "smaller government" record AND treat his constituents to some of the pork.
Although I was first quite appalled by this, I guess I don't see anything particularly wrong with it. It's not as if he's supporting the taxation. I suppose he's just saying Congress has already collected the money; if he doesn't take it home, someone else will.
In other words, he is just continuing the problem. If he were just honest about it like, say Hunter, and explain specifically what they are for and why they are needed, it would be one thing, but to go around condemning others and acting holier than thou while he is contributing to the problem simply screams fraud.
Heck, even McCain has pledged never to request earmarks and follows up on that pledge. Hunter fully discloses his and there aren’t any that people would consider highly questionable. Paul, on the other hand, when he discloses them, has shown some very shrimpy pork. Restoring old theaters and trolleys, subsidizing the shrimping industry, creating a federal child tracking database, funding the TTC..etc, etc..
Oh, and just to add, it isn’t that he adds a few, he requests more earmarks than any other Texas congressman, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.