PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Porkbusters gets a mention in this Time magazine profile of Sen. Tom Coburn’s anti-pork efforts:
While they may not endorse his views on social issues, Coburn’s allies on his efforts to cut spending are perhaps the two most popular men in the Senate: Illinois Democrat Barack Obama and Arizona Republican John McCain. Before Coburn arrived in 2005, McCain was the chamber’s most vocal basher of wasteful spending, but he has eagerly ceded that to Coburn, while working with the Oklahoma Senator to strategize on how to cut earmarks from this month’s war spending bill. Obama, much to the left of Coburn, is an unlikely friend, but the Senate’s most famous freshman said his and Coburn’s wives became fast friends during the orientation for new senators and their families, and Obama has vocally supported Coburn’s spending efforts. “He’s fearless in his approach,” says Obama. Coburn has also found support from groups like Citizens Against Government Waste and the American Conservative Union, as well as a blog called porkbusters, to which his office is often feeding information about egregious earmarks, in the hopes of stirring opposition in conservative blogs that could embarrass his colleagues into limiting their earmarks.
Sadly, many of his colleagues seem immune to embarrassment, which is why the GOP is in big trouble.