John McCain Criticizes Same Earmark That He Voted For
Apparently John McCain voted for the bill providing the money to do the research on bears in Montana that he has been criticizing on the campaign trail.
Paternity Tests for Bears
Good laugh lines, maybe, but the United States Geological Service’s Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project didn’t study DNA for paternity tests or forensics. Rather, it explored a means of estimating Montana’s grizzly bear population by analyzing bear fur snagged on barbed wire. The project was funded partly by federal appropriations – about $1 million per year in add-ons to USGS in 2003 through 2005, $400,000 in 2006 and $300,000 in 2007, plus a $1.1 million earmark through the Forest Service in 2004, according to the study’s principal researcher, Katherine C. Kendall. Part of that funding was doled out as part of the omnibus appropriations bill McCain discussed in February 2003.
Despite the fun McCain had ridiculing the bear project on the Senate floor, he didn’t actually try to remove it from the bill. He did introduce several amendments, including three to reduce funding for projects he considered wasteful or harmful, but none removing the grizzly bear project appropriations. And despite his criticisms, he voted in favor of the final bill.
Factcheck.org also goes also points out John McCains other misleading statements relating to pork:
And of course there was the “Pant’s on Fire” line :
McCain says the price of a gas tax “holiday” would be about the same as “a Bridge to Nowhere (or) another pork barrel project.”
John McCain on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 in an interview on the Fox News Channel. >>Details
