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Majority leader Tom Daschle is mandating billions of gallons of ethanol use across the country, benefiting constituents in his home state while raising gas prices for everyone else by another dime per gallon. Ethanol neither reduces pollution nor acts as a replacement for fossil fuels, as its defenders claim. In fact, producing ethanol requires more fossil fuel than it saves through consumption. Furthermore, the EPA is investigating ethanol-producing companies for pollution; they may be ejecting pollutants at many times the anticipated levels. The National Academy of Sciences concluded that ethanol had little impact in improving ozone air quality.
--Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2002

In 2001, there was only one "Taxpayer Superhero" in the Senate, John Ensign (R-Nev.) with a 100 percent rating. The House did a little better. In that body, there were four Superheroes. They were Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

And who were the knaves, those who scored a big goose egg in CCAGW's ratings? In the Senate there were four: Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). In the House, there were eight representatives who scored zeros: Reps. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), Steven Lynch (D-Mass.), Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii), John Olver (D-Mass.), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), Diane Watson (D-Calif.), Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.).

In the Senate, Republicans scored an average of 77 percent and Democrats were at 15 percent. In the Senate, Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) scored 5 percent, while his counterpart Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), had a score of 80 percent. In the House, Speaker Hastert scored 100 percent, while Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) scored 7 percent.
Cagw, Citizens Against Government Waste.

As long as the press/Dems. are interested in accountability and stewardship of other people's money all of a sudden...