WASHINGTON – First-term Republican Rep. Tim Scott of Charleston, S.C., says he's looking for "any way in the world" to get federal money to expand his hometown's aging harbor. It's the one way he won't pursue that's making some South Carolinians angry.
Scott, like his state's famously conservative senator, Jim DeMint, is among a new breed of tea party-backed conservatives who have sworn off "earmarks" — the pet projects that lawmakers can write into spending bills for their districts. He won't ask for one, won't support one, doesn't even want to talk about it.
His opposition to earmarks helped get him elected last year in a conservative state where slashing government spending is a political battle cry. But he's finding that saying no can be tricky business for members of Congress, who are traditionally rewarded for bringing federal projects home.
The Charleston Harbor in particular — a critical economic engine in a poor state — is testing his resolve, just as local demands for highways, dams and other needs are challenging the anti-spending rhetoric from campaign trails across the country.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110302/ap_on_re_us/us_ports_earmarks
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