NY23: Hoffman takes no-pork pledge

Which might not be totally popular with some locals:

Rep. John M. McHugh won a reputation as a friend of Fort Drum by securing tens of million of dollars in congressional earmarks that may have helped save the post from closure in 2005.
Douglas L. Hoffman, the Conservative seeking to replace him, has sworn to oppose just those sorts of projects if elected to Congress.
To obtain the endorsement, and campaign cash, of the conservative Club for Growth, Mr. Hoffman signed a statement promising not to request earmarks, which the group defines as any spending requested by only one chamber of Congress or not requested by the White House. By that definition, a total of $114 million in construction at Fort Drum -- including weapons training facilities, improvements at Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield and a family support center -- would not have been built this decade.
Sixteen projects at Fort Drum since 2000 have met the definition of earmarks followed by the Club for Growth and were listed in the annual Congressional Pig Book published by an allied group, Citizens Against Government Waste. . . .

Read the whole thing in the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times. All pork is local, eh? You can see a PDF of Hoffman's no-pork pledge here.

HOFFMANIA: CATCH IT!

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Insane news of the day

Philip Klein at the American Spectator:

Hundreds of members of the Service Employees International Union are taking off from their jobs to join the fight to pass President Obama's $3.55 trillion budget, a union official said on Wednesday.
"SEIU intends to bring the full force of the union and its 2.1 million members to bear," Khalid Pitts, director of political accountability at the SEIU said on a conference call. "Right now, we have hundreds of our workers, who have taken leave from their jobs in 18 crucial states to moving this budget."
Pitts said that the members will be going door-to-door to convince their neighbors to support the budget as well as organizing house parties and other events. The hope is that the hundreds will turn into thousands as members of Congress arrive in their districts during Easter recess.

Think about that. Here we are with the economy in the toilet, unemployment above 7% for the first time in many years, the stock market plunging to its lowest point in 12 years, new waves of bankruptcies and foreclosures and layoffs announced every day. And yet, these SEIU members -- who are very fortunate actually to have jobs -- are going to take time off to go door-to-door campaigning on behalf of Obama's stagflation-on-steroids budget that will kill jobs like Raid kills roaches.

Nurse, more Thorazine, please!