Yeah, now Obama claims he won't request any for next fiscal year...


Both parties came in for criticism, with the Democrats, who control both houses of Congress, topping the Republicans in spending.
The Democrats were behind 5,199 projects worth $5.5 billion, while the Republicans earmarked 3,408 projects worth $4.4 billion, the citizen's group said.
And in a sign bipartisanship is not dead, the two parties jointly backed 2,518 projects worth $3.8 billion. Interactive: Map of pork per capita by state »
The three senators running for president were not among the top targets of criticism, and one got an entirely clean bill from the watchdog group.
"Sen. [Barack] Obama had 53 earmarks worth $97 million dollars, and Sen. [Hillary] Clinton had 281 earmarks worth $296 million. Sen. Obama recently said he would not request any project for this upcoming fiscal year," said Tom Schatz, the president of Citizens Against Government Waste."And of course Sen. [John] McCain has never requested them and he won't be doing so in 2009. So now the question is if Sen. Clinton will join the other major candidates in saying that she will not request any earmarks for 2009."
To qualify for the Pig Book, a project must meet at least one of these standards: it was requested by only one chamber of Congress; was not specifically authorized; was not competitively awarded; was not requested by the president; greatly exceeded the president's budget request or the previous year's funding; was not the subject of congressional hearings; or served only a local or special interests.