Hey, here's a few stories Bill O'Reilly didn't report on today. Vol. CXXXIV No. 362

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats on Thursday announced an investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let California implement its tailpipe emissions law, the first step in what will likely be a fierce legal and political battle.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sent a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson demanding "all documents relating to the California waiver request, other than those that are available on the public record."

Waxman told Johnson to have EPA staff preserve all records. The decision against California "appears to have ignored the evidence before the agency and the requirements of the Clean Air Act," Waxman wrote. He asked for all the relevant documents by Jan. 23.

Johnson on Wednesday denied his decision was political, saying it was based on legal analysis of the Clean Air Act. His refusal blocks California and at least 16 other states that wanted to adopt California's law slashing greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks by a third.

President Bush stood by the decision of his EPA administrator.

"The question is how to have an effective strategy. Is it more effective to let each state make a decision as to how to proceed in curbing greenhouse gases or is it more effective to have a national strategy," Bush said at a news conference Thursday.

Johnson said California's emissions limits weren't needed because Congress just passed energy legislation raising fuel economy standards nationwide.
"The director in assessing this law and assessing what would be more effective for the country said we now have a national plan," said Bush. "It's one of the benefits of Congress passing this legislation."






WASHINGTON — The demise of the bridge to nowhere notwithstanding, Sen. Ted Stevens and other Republicans remain the kings of pork-barrel spending, proving that GOP mastery of "earmarks" can withstand public scorn, a president's rebuke and even a Democratic takeover of Congress.

The Senate's two biggest sponsors of this year's pet spending projects are Republicans Stevens of Alaska and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, according to preliminary reviews of fiscal 2008 spending bills by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group. Two of the House's three biggest claimants of earmarks also are Republicans: Bill Young of Florida and Jerry Lewis of California, the group found.

Their continued success at steering billions of taxpayer dollars to their constituents is all the more impressive — or arguably hypocritical — since President Bush and other prominent Republicans sharpened their criticisms of earmarks after Democrats took over the House and Senate majorities in January.

It underscores the cozy and murky nature of appropriating, in which longtime friendships and mutual back-scratching seem to trump the steely partisanship seen elsewhere in Congress. It also reflects Democrats' calculation that there is political safety in granting the GOP about 40 percent of all earmark spending — the same proportion Democrats enjoyed when they were in the minority — rather than appear vengeful and antagonistic by cutting the Republicans' share more deeply.

"It kind of takes the sting out of their accusations if they are taking 40 percent of the pie," said one House Democratic aide.
Most of all, the continued enthusiasm for earmarks by some of Congress' most senior members proves that voters crave the health clinics, community centers and thousands of other projects that earmarks fund — even if they criticize the practice in the abstract.

Elected officials reflect the public's ambivalence, often denouncing earmarks before enacting them into law. Last month in Indiana, President Bush ridiculed a labor-health-education spending bill, which he vetoed, because it contained "wasteful projects" such as a prison museum, sailing school and "Portuguese as a second language" program. "Congress needs to cut out that pork," Bush said.