DEPARTED PORKERS

Three of the powerful Republican "Cardinals," the House Appropriations subcommittee chairmen who dispense federal pork, were defeated in the midterm elections.

The losing Cardinals were Reps. Don Sherwood of Pennsylvania (Foreign Operations subcommittee), John Sweeney of New York (Treasury-Transportation-HUD) and Charles Taylor of North Carolina (Interior). Rep. Anne Northup of Kentucky, another senior pork-dispensing appropriator, also lost.

Sens. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Conrad Burns of Montana, both Senate appropriators who favored pork, were defeated (after Burns attacked his victorious Democratic opponent for opposing earmarks). Two other defeated Republican senators, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Jim Talent of Missouri, voted for notorious pork projects: the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska and the "Railroad to Nowhere" in Mississippi.

"CHURCH ELECTIONEERING"

The Rev. Barry Lynn, a crusader against "church electioneering," during the campaign sent threatening letters to religious leaders warning that they could lose tax exemptions if their houses of worship engage in partisan political activity.

As chairman of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Lynn long has assailed the Religious Right. In warning ministers that their churches may be subject to audits and retroactive tax payments, he specifically cited the experience of conservative churchmen Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

"If the IRS determines that your house of worship has engaged in unlawful intervention," Lynn wrote the ministers, "it can revoke the institution's tax-exempt status or levy significant fines on the house of worship or its leaders." He cautioned the parsons "to be especially wary of so-called 'voter guides.'"