Congressman Oberstar is a swine

Remember the new House earmark rule change just passed requiring representatives to attach their names to spending items they request?

Well, Congressman Oberstar thinks he's 'special'. From Captain Quarter's Oberstar Fails The Pork Test:

The House has considered a new Coast Guard appropriation (HR 5681), but they did so under a suspension of the rules. This parliamentary manuever allows Representatives to undermine the new rule just created that forces them to identify their earmarks in the Congressional Record. Sure enough, sources on the Hill tells me that some shenanigans occurred with the Coast Guard Authorization Act, and section 405 confirms it. The addition to HR 5681 authorizes a multimillion-dollar research program at the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute, a joint project of the Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin...

...All of this research will cost American taxpayers $11.5 million dollars over five years (2007-11). Sources on the Hill tell me that the secret earmarker -- the man who saw his opportunity for secrecy when the rules got suspended -- was none other than Minnesota's James Oberstar.