McCain Asks Obama to Disclose Illinois Pork Projects

Fox News reports:

Budget hawk John McCain took a fresh shot at Barack Obama Thursday, calling on him to publicly identify the “pork barrel” projects he sponsored in the Senate.

It was the Arizona senator’s latest attempt to simulate a general election and cut down Obama as he creeps ahead of Hillary Clinton in the tight race for the Democratic nomination. McCain was poised to move a big step closer to sealing the GOP nomination with the endorsement of former rival Mitt Romney Thursday.

McCain’s challenge to Obama was based on a Washington Post article that morning highlighting pork barrel project recipients. The article said Clinton helped lock down more than $340 million in earmarks for her home state of New York in last year’s spending bills, placing her in the top tier of Senate recipients for the type of localized federal spending against which McCain claims to be a crusader. By comparison, the article said Obama recorded $91 million in earmarks.

But McCain merely noted Clinton’s “pork” at a campaign stop in Burlington, Vt., and then blasted Obama for not revealing the target of his earmarks. The Post article said Obama has not released his letters to the Appropriations Committee seeking the earmarks for 2005 and 2006.

“The senator from Illinois, because he is a junior, had only gotten about $92 million, according to that article,” McCain said. “And the senator from Illinois, who says that he wants transparency in government, will not reveal the number of earmarks that he received in 2006 and 2005. Is that transparency in government? I don’t think so. I don’t think so!

“So I call on the senator … to go ahead and tell people how much money in earmarked projects and pork barrel projects that he got for his state and what they were for. And my friends, examine my record on pork barrel projects and you will see a big fat zero.”

Sounds like Obama really understands The Chicago Way of doing business.