Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama tried to direct more than $3 million in taxpayer funds to a Chicago museum whose chairman is one of the Illinois senator's largest campaign fundraisers.
Mr. Obama has twice since fiscal 2006 sought to have taxpayers foot the bill for a new theater projector and other equipment at the Adler Planetarium on the Lake Michigan waterfront. . . .
The planetarium's chairman, then and still, is Frank Clark, chief executive of ComEd, a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Energy. He has pledged to raise more than $200,000 for Mr. Obama's run for the White House.
And there's a Biden connection, too:
Moreover, the Adler Planetarium is represented by the lobbying firm National Group LLP, co-founded by William Oldaker, who helped launch Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s political action committee in 2005. . . .
Barack has expressed pride in his ability to haul in the pork. In contrast, Sarah Palin killed the Bridge to Nowhere (while Barack voted for it); what's more, Governor Palin cut Alaska's earmark requests in half last year. That contrasts well with the $100 million in earmarks Barack delivered to Illinois last year -- and the near billion in requests for pet projects he's submitted since 2005.