The Swine Line

The Hill newspaper reports that the infamous $23 million NDIC earmark, over which 2007 Porker of the Year winner John Murtha threw a temper tantrum and threatened a colleague last year, was removed from this year’s intelligence bill:

Dems, GOP together nix Murtha earmark

Democrats and Republicans joined together to strip a pet project of Rep. John Murtha’s (D-Pa.) from the 2009 intelligence authorization bill — the same project Democrats defended last year.

The Murtha earmark, $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), was one of a handful of pet projects eliminated from the bill in a lopsided 17-4 vote. Several Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee joined with Republicans to support the amendment, which was sponsored by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.), the panel’s ranking Republican.

…Most Democrats supported the move to keep the bill earmark-free, an outcome that surprised and encouraged Hoekstra.

“I was a little surprised,” he said. “I had thought the majority was going to say, ‘No, we’re keeping our earmarks.’

“This bill should be about our national security priorities,” he continued. “The best way to give confidence to the American people in this bill, which is largely kept out of public view, is to focus on our national security priorities not something that’s being driven by member requests.”

Hoekstra said Democrats’ decision to join his amendment could be a sign that other appropriations and authorizations bills this year could be earmark-free as well.