Oh I Wish I Was a Grand Old Party Oinker

Today's reminder that the national GOP has devolved into a pork-pride parade comes from occasional Reason contributor Radley Balko, writing over at FoxNews.com:

The [$286 billion highway] bill calls for nearly half a billion dollars to build two bridges in Alaska. One will connect the Alaskan mainland with a tiny island called Gravina (population: 50). It will cost U.S. taxpayers $230 million. In fact, when it comes to pork barrel politics, Alaska is the new West Virginia. That's because Alaska Rep.Don Young chairs the transportation committee. The transportation bill is named after Young's wife. The second bridge the bill appropriates money for -- another $230 million -- will be called "Don Young Way." […]

You'd think that a Republican like Young would at least be embarrassed about all of this. He isn't. He's shameless. Upon hearing that only one other lawmaker in the entire Congress had outdone him in securing pork barrel projects, Young told the New York Times, "I'd like to be a little oinker, myself. If he's the chief porker, I'm upset."

Lovely. Then there's the shenanigans of "House Government Reform Committee" chairman Tom Davis.

Davis later threatened sanctions against [Major League Baseball] if it allowed an ownership group, in which billionaire leftist George Soros held a minority stake, to purchase the Washington Nationals -- a stunning, possibly illegal threat to impose legal sanctions against a private organization for doing business with someone Davis opposes politically. Just last month, Davis stuck a provision into a funding bill that would prohibit development of a housing complex in his home district. The congressman told Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher he feared "urban kind of people" moving into his district. This is exactly the kind of federal government edict over local affairs Republicans are supposed to oppose.

Local officials told Fisher that Davis has said privately he fears too much development in his district will attract too many Democrats, which could one day imperil his reelection.