Inhofe, DeMint at Odds Over Earmarks

There’s a battle brewing over Earmark reform in the Senate, and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma appears ready to make it very public.

Inhofe has emerged as the chief opponent to DeMint’s anti-earmarking efforts and has quietly been preparing for this fight for months. He said Tuesday that he will deliver a “pretty strong statement” on the Senate floor Monday that will accuse DeMint of favoring earmarks until they fell out of political vogue.

However, DeMint has already acknowledged his past as an Earmarker and Inhofe has voted for a similar measure in the past. That turns any charge of simply playing politics back on him. This is also another example of the continued influence of the Tea Party movement. DeMint already has ten Senators lined up behind him. There’s said to be concern among Senators as to how a failure to act might reflect upon members up for re-election in 2012. The Tea Party has already shown its willingness to primary incumbents with which it disagrees. To paraphrase an old movie icon, Do you feel lucky, Senator? Well, do ya?

A GOP aide whose boss supports the earmark ban bristled at Inhofe’s attacks, pointing out that the Oklahoman, along with much of the GOP Conference, voted for a nearly identical moratorium on the Senate floor in 2008.

Pointing to Inhofe’s repeated charges that anti-earmark fervor is nothing more than politics, the aide questioned his support of the 2008 moratorium. “Is that how he would describe his vote for the exact same earmark moratorium?” the aide asked.