Since Rep. Todd Tiahrt does little spends most of his time lining his pockets with campaign funds and other congressional perks, he needs plenty of pork projects to justify his job at election time. Not everyone votes solely on abortion or gay marriage, so Tiahrt tries to bring the pork home to his constituents in Wichita.
Congress as a whole has dealt him a blow lately. According to The Wichita Eagle, Jul. 04:
“Outrage on Capitol Hill that started with a "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska could end up slowing the pace of construction for central Wichita's railroad bridges and other area projects.
Backlash against congressionally funded projects such as last year's $315 million bridge from Alaska's Gravina Island, population 50, to Ketchikan, population 8,000, is making it more difficult for lawmakers to set aside targeted federal funds for projects in their districts.
That practice of "earmarking" funds normally steers tens of millions of federal dollars to Wichita each year.
But perceptions that Congress is abusing its earmark ability are slowing some projects and putting others on hold nationwide.”
The first thing to go is money that was earmarked to speed up the building of rail-road bridges, to smooth out traffic in Wichita. So that leaves Tiahrt with less to brag about at election time. He will have to count on his hard core base of far-right Christian wing-nuts for support in the next election,
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