In Iowa, they know a conservative when they see one. Today’s straw poll is the first indication that the ‘08 election campaign will not be bereft of conservative ideas. Take a look at the candidates in the order of votes received today:

• Mitt Romney
• Mike Huckabee
• Sam Brownback
• Tom Tancredo
• Ron Paul
• Tommy Thompson
• Fred Thompson
• Rudy Giuliani
• Duncan Hunter
• John McCain
• John Cox

With the exception of Duncan Hunter, the bottom half of this list consists of moderate to left-of-center candidates. Hunter is very conservative but doesn’t articulate his positions well and can’t seem to connect with the voters.

So, at least in Iowa, they know a conservative when they see one, spin notwithstanding. Let’s hope the rest of the country goes this direction.

Since the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis many politicians, mostly Democrats, have used the tragedy to score political points. The silly arguments, like the Iraq War is responsible for the collapse, do nothing to find solutions to repair our neglected infrastructure. In Human Events Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) takes the entire political system to task:

It is undeniable that official Washington has “taken its eye off the ball” with respect to bridge safety, and a host of other issues. Yet, the true structural flaw in our political system is not insufficient spending, but misplaced priorities.

No area better illustrates Congress’ misplaced priorities than pork-barrel spending. The Federal Highway Administration declared the bridge “structurally deficient” in 1990 and directly warned Minnesota officials. Yet, since 1990, Congress has show more devotion to pork-barrel spending than repair work.

The 1981 transportation contained only 10 earmarks. President Reagan vetoed a transportation bill in 1987 that contained 121 earmarks, saying, “I haven’t seen this much lard since I handed out blue ribbons at the Iowa State Fair.” Moving ahead to 2005, Congress passed a transportation bill that included an astonishing 6,371 earmarks, or ten percent of the bill’s total $286 billion cost. Unfortunately, President Bush refused to veto this bill, giving his tacit approval to Congress’ earmark spending binge.

It has been argued here recently that earmarks don’t increase federal spending because the money will be spent anyway. I say that is a dishonest explanation of the federal earmark system. When we’ve gone from 121 earmarks to 6371 in 20 years there is something wrong with the system. A glaring example of our misplaced priorities is the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere”:

Yet, no other episode demonstrated the structural flaws in our political process more than the Senate’s lopsided 82-15 vote in defense of the “Bridge to Nowhere” in 2005. The actual amendment I offered went beyond striking the bridge and challenged Congress’ approach to spending priorities. The amendment would have redirected funding from two dubious Alaska bridge projects — the Gravina “Bridge to Nowhere” and the Knik Arm Bridge — costing a combined $452 million to reconstruction of the Twin Spans Bridge in Louisiana that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

This vote is instructive because it was about much more than the bridges. Eighty-two Senators were not as interested in defending the bridges as much as their perceived right to pork. Congress’ refusal to make rationale decisions about competing priorities continues to be at the heart of the ongoing culture of corruption in Washington. What is disturbing in Congress today are not debates about competing priorities, but Congress’ refusal to acknowledge its own responsibility to set priorities.

Senator Coburn wrote in his memoirs (before the bridge collapse) about this problem of pork barrel spending:

Another objection I had to pork politics was that it jeopardized public safety … For instance, allocating $7 million to a transportation museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania, means $7 million will not be spent improving dangerous two-lane highways and crumbling bridges … Failing to allocate money to repair roads and bridges can and does endanger lives.

Let’s hope that Senator Coburn will continue his fight against this narcissistic perversion of our political system.

It’s the weekend - get out and do some serious shopping!