"But Captain, You Told Me..."

In the movie Mr. Roberts, James Cagney's character Capt. Morton, in a fit of frustration over a questioned order which had previously been given to Lt. Roberts (played by Henry Fonda), says "Never mind what I told you, I'm telling you!" Sound familiar?

Congressional earmarks. Remember them? Remember how candidate Obama, then President Obama vowed to end them, even after signing into law over 8,000 that were neatly tucked inside the $410 billion omnibus spending bill last spring. Or better yet, just last August, the President told an audience of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, "if Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with a bunch of pork, I will veto it." But just last week, the White House signaled their support of the latest Defense Department spending bill which includes almost $3 billion in earmarks. When asked why the President's actions don't always match his rhetoric, the White House responded that it was never their intention to end the practice of earmarks in one year. "The president has been clear from Day One: He wants to change the way business gets done in Washington." Yeah, right.