Lieberman's marginal conservative improvement last year reflected his Sept. 21 vote, against the Democratic leadership, for an amendment requiring greater disclosure of earmarks. That signaled a new alertness to the problem, and it became intensified when the "bridge to nowhere" became a national scandal. This year, Lieberman voted three times with Coburn on Katrina-related earmarks: against reconstructing a railroad, promoting seafood consumption and subsidizing Northrop Grumman shipbuilding.
But when it comes to bringing home the bacon for his home state, Lieberman is trying to get in a class with Bob Byrd in West Virginia and Ted Stevens in Alaska. He and his Senate colleague Dodd collaborate on the pork beat, jointly creating Fiscal Year 2006 earmarks that total $101.7 million.
This involves some of the typically absurd symptoms of the earmark epidemic where all the nation's taxpayers have to pay for local projects, such as $100,000 for a new YMCA in Ellington and $250,000 to renovate the Palace Theatre in Stamford. But Lieberman-Dodd earmarks more typically are heavy-construction expenditures -- headed by $12 million for the Hartford-New Britain Busway, $4 million for the Bridgeport Intermodal Transport Center and $2.75 million each for high speed ferries in Stamford and Bridgeport.
The choice for Connecticut Democrats is no less clear on government spending than it is about intervention in Iraq. The issue was put more succinctly than is usual for politicians near the end of the July 7 debate. Asserting that spending should be authorized through the regular congressional process, Lamont confronted Lieberman: "You support the earmarks, you work with the lobbyists, and that's what needs to be changed." Lieberman replied: "The earmarks are great for Connecticut."