Why did Republicans re-elect John Boehner as House Minority Leader despite the beating the GOP took in November? Ah, yes... it must have been to watch him continue to be outwitted--this time by a guy who hasn't even taken office yet.

Further details of the Obama stimulus plan that emerged today contained the following little nugget, from the President-elect himself:

"We are going to ban all earmarks, the process by which individual members insert projects without review."

Problem is, earmark reform could have been a Republican issue as recently as six months ago [1]. Now the opportunity is gone-- poof! And all because Boehner, who is said to personally oppose earmarks, didn't have the courage or wherewithal then to force an earmark ban on the pork barrel piggies within his own caucus who wanted to preserve them and keep bringing home the bacon [2] (read the quotes in this linked article from Congressman Gary Miller, one of our local GOP porkers).

Now, I don't really trust the President-elect-- a fairly prolific earmarker in his own right [3] while a member of the Senate-- to actually do anything here, but Republicans missed their chance and now have no hope of regaining credibility on this topic.

As a result, a new political poster is said to be sweeping the nation:

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