Earmark Crusade Hits Former Hastert Aide

Rep Jeff Flake continued his fight against earmarks by cutting a provision out of a defense appropriations bill that would have gone towards a tech organization created by a former aide to House Speaker Dennis Hastert.  Rep. Hastert, whose earmarking record recently has been called into question, defends the practice by saying:

lawmakers, not civil servants, should determine where federal funds are spent in their home states and districts.

Flake says he did not know the earmark in question was that of the Speakers’, but that knowledge would not have changed his action:

As for Hastert, Flake said he would prefer not to know whose earmarks he is targeting.

“I’ve told my staff, ‘Please don’t tell me.’ It might dissuade me,” he said.