An incredibly arrogant, venal and stupid move from an incredibly arrogant, venal, and stupid Member of Congress:

A plan by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) to ban “monuments to me” in this year’s appropriations bills has been sharply criticized behind closed doors by a senior Democrat who wants to direct $1 million to an employment center in her district bearing her name.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) confronted Obey in the Democratic whip meeting Thursday, complaining about his refusal to fund her earmark request for the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center in the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations bill, according to another Democratic Member and aides.

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Do you remember that $200 million earmarked by Congressional Democrats for re-sodding the national mall? Do you recall how Democrats and the White House were so embarrassed about the project that they at last deleted it from the legislation - and then complained loudly any time Republicans failed to note that they had eliminated it?

Well, it turns out they’re spending it anyway:

More than $55 million in economic stimulus money will be used to fix the National Mall, even though money for mall renovations was removed during congressional debate on the stimulus package this winter…

In January, majority Democrats removed $200 million in stimulus funding that had been targeted for the National Mall, after Republicans criticized it as an example of wasteful spending.

Salazar called the money being spent to renovate the Mall a “down payment” on a much larger challenge to fix a national symbol that has fallen into disrepair. He said the mall does not belong to the District of Columbia but to the nation, and called it an important symbol for all Americans.

This is just one more demonstration that ideas for more spending never really die in Washington; they always come back. Can stimulus funds for condoms be far behind?

You’ve heard the horror stories about the wasteful projects in the House version of the Obama-Reid-Pelosi debt bill. You heard about reseeding the mall, and funding ’stimulative’ contraception. But did you know that the Senate has a whole raft of new items in their version of the bill?

Here’s a taste:

•    $20 million “for the removal of small- to medium-sized fish passage barriers.” (Pg. 45 of Senate Appropriations Committee report: “20,000,000 for the removal of small- to medium-sized fish passage barriers)

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