Are John McCain's Earmarks Ringing?

By John F. Dickerson/Washington

GEORGE W. BUSH wants to put Congress on a diet. Next week he will release details from his budget, with more specifics about his plan to eliminate close to 6,000 earmarks--those pet projects that lawmakers fund by going around the budget process. He should have an ally in JOHN MCCAIN, who has been trying unsuccessfully for years to eliminate these extra items that balloon government spending. Why are earmarks so hard to get rid of? Because one person's wasteful pork is another person's vital program. Bush is already being attacked for his plans to eliminate earmarks for programs that seek to prevent child abuse. McCain is all too familiar with such assaults. During last year's presidential primaries, he was accused of being against breast-cancer research because of an earmark he voted to eliminate. Who attacked the Arizona Senator? Challenger George W. Bush. With a giddy campaign-finance victory near, maybe McCain has forgotten.

--By John F. Dickerson/Washington