Comments on: McCain: Earmarks are “gateway to corruption”

By: The Tower: Surveying the Political World From High Above » Blog Archive » Eyeon08.com comments on McCain’s answer to GraniteGrok on earmarks: “the gateway to corruption”.

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 02:34:28 +0000

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By: eyeon08.com » Barnes on GOP: Importance of earmarks and ethics

eyeon08.com » Barnes on GOP: Importance of earmarks and ethics — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:30:32 +0000

[...] There has been a debate about whether earmarks are the problem and a good political issue. Patrick Hynes has taken the position that while they are bad, they are not a motivating issue. Ramesh Ponnuru has argued that there is not much there substantively. While I agree with the substance of their criticism, I think it misses the point. To quote John McCain, "earmarks are [the] gateway to corruption." The corruption in our party turns off a lot of voters. We are not talking about using this as an issue to fire up activists, we are talking about fixing the image. [...]

By: neil

neil — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:29:57 +0000

Wake me up when someone suggests a method to find and terminate corrupt Pentagon contracts.

By: eye

eye — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:46:33 +0000

I think that the point is that it will be easier to find the corrupt ones.

By: neil

neil — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:41:24 +0000

Maybe so, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Congressmen are proud of their earmarks. Congressmen make earmarks so that their constituents will see that they bringing jobs and money back to the district. More transparency will only intensify the competition — who wants to deal with campaign commercials saying that you brought home less money than anyone but Ron Paul?

Transparency is a good thing where spending is concerned, but it’s not going to end or slow earmarks.