The Coburn amendment of which I speak was a highly symbolic bill that would have defunded the 'bridge to nowhere' in Alaska. The vote was 85-15. If a Senator wasn't in those 15, his claim to being against pork is complete and utter bull$#!#. Not that being in the 15 means you're always against pork (Mike DeWine is a good example of a pork-loving member of that fifteen whose vote was clearly for political reasons)--but NOT being in the 15 means you're not even against pork when it's all that is being specifically voted upon.
Not surprisingly, John McCain is NOT in the 15.
You can't simultaneously be a deficit hawk and want to expand the reach of the government into every sphere of American life.
Losing Larry Pressler as head of the Sen. Commerce Committee was a disaster, IMO.
Not only was he replaced by a doctrinaire liberal-who was a protege of Little Tommy Daschle-but it resulted in the ascension to power of John McInsane.