These days, there’s a stark contrast between the warm reception Sen. Jim DeMint gets at home in South Carolina for “fighting for something” and the chilly distance he feels on Capitol Hill.

Few colleagues are happy to see the man who’s crusading to get rid of so-called pork-barrel projects or earmarks — pet projects that often serve only local or special interests. He doesn’t think a ban is possible, so at a minimum, he wants lawmakers to own up to the money they’re asking for.

“I get a lot of cold stares up here, a cool reception,” said the Greenville Republican, who has made this a signature issue.

Charlotte Observer

This will continue to be an uphill battle for a very long time. This needs to be made into a national movement, with Republicans all across the country demanding their representatives are more responsible and transparent with spending our money. Case and point:

“There aren’t enough of them,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group that monitors government spending.

And of course the absurdities they get spent on know no end…….

Perhaps most notorious in the Carolinas is the Sparta Teapot Museum, planned for Alleghany County, which got $500,000 in 2005 from the federal housing budget.

Another notable one: Upgrades to the University of South Carolina’s Thomas Cooper Library so it could feature a rare book collection and a political section named after former U.S. Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, D-S.C., himself a big pork harvester.

The project got $1.98 million in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration budget, $3.94 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and $8 million from the Small Business Administration, according to federal budget data from 2005. Nowhere did it indicate who was seeking the money.