PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Alaska’s Congressional delegation is getting bad press in Alaska:

Sen. Ted Stevens rails on the Senate floor against Sen. Coburn’s assault on Alaska spending. The response? From nationally syndicated conservative writers such as Cal Thomas and John Stossel comes word that Stevens’ departure would be welcome. They don’t see him as Alaskan of the Century. They see him as a poster-senator for runaway spending and skewed national priorities.

How would Alaskans feel about sending a big share of their federal taxes to another state whose residents keep taking more than they give to the federal treasury, insist on paying no state income or sales tax and receive hundreds of millions every year in payments from their state government for individual shares of their state’s resource wealth?

In Illinois and Louisiana and West Virginia and elsewhere, it’s logical to ask: More than $31 billion in the Alaska Permanent Fund, generating interest and dividends, and you want the rest of America to bankroll your bridges? Death grip on your state dividends and a zealot’s passion against taxes, and yet you demand the taxes of others to pay for things you won’t pay for yourself? How long do you think you can play this game?

We’re getting closer to the day when the rest of the country says: “You want the goodies? Pay for them yourselves.”

Could be. Though I doubt West Virginia will be taking a lead role in denouncing pork . . .