Bulletproof vests for police dogs in Ohio. A custom trailer for a Texas mushroom festival. Plasma TV screens in Maryland. Like any other New Yorker, Congressman Anthony Weiner was outraged when it was revealed that funding for pork barrel projects such as these were being funded with federal homeland security dollars.

In order to pass spending bills in a quick and easy manner, Congressional leaders will be sure to split

up funding evenly between every state and district in the nation, ensuring that no one complains and therefore tries to block the bill’s passage. 

Two weeks ago, the media were praising Weiner, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, for complaining that New York was being shortchanged for critical anti-terrorism funds by areas unlikely to be terrorist targets. But Weiner is himself something of a porkmeister. 

Last July, Weiner hailed the passage of the Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA-LU), which he sponsored, and made sure everyone knew how hard he worked to get funding citywide. In reality, this funding would have arrived here if a wooden dummy were representing us in Congress. Though he made no apparent effort in the past to fight for such funding, during his mayoral campaign Weiner was all over the place. Like Rogers and Hart, he’d even take the Bronx and Staten Island (at least when he wasn’t busy urging residents to throw this newspaper in the trash). And he made sure to spred the pork.

Weiner’s push to provide pork outside of his district may even have forced some of that money into limbo. On Feb. 10, Weiner’s office issued a press release boasting that he had delivered on his promise to provide $1.4 million in funding to fix streets in Astoria, which borders his own district, that were damaged by a catastrophic water main break the previous February. But the City has already been found liable for the damage, fixed the streets and paid the bill. Congressional earmarks can only be spent on exactly what they are intended for, and Astoria’s streets might have to be ripped up again just to spend the money. According to a source, Weiner’s office quickly rescinded the press release, fearing a pork-fueled embarrassment. 

Weiner is certainly not alone in his love of the pork barrel. In fact, most senators proved last year that they will never let go of their personal pork, no matter what the cost. When the Senate introduced a bill in October to repeal parts of SAFETEA-LU in favor of using the money to rebuild areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, it failed miserably. Just 15 Sen-ators—only one of them a Democrat—voted in favor of the measure. Both New York senators protected their pigs. 

When he was running for the Democratic nomination for mayor, Weiner proposed what he called “real fiscal responsibility,” proposing the elimination of the worst-performing city programs and creating a 10 percent middle-class tax cut. This ran to the right of his chief rival, ex-Bronx President Fernando Ferrer, and made him more appealing to those middle-class voters he so desperately needed to win. Although Weiner failed in his quest for the city’s highest office, he scored points for dropping out of the race when it appeared that he had won a runoff (he ended up losing by a fraction of a percentage point). Since then, Weiner has toured the city touting pet projects and thereby ensuring that his name—and pocketbook—stay fresh in voters’ minds when he makes an expected second run for mayor in 2009.

But in Congress, Weiner doesn’t run to the right or left of anything when it comes to pork barrel spending. He is part of the pack, made up of Republican and Democrats alike, that would sooner die than give back one penny of its own budget, no matter what the reason. 

Still, Weiner does have one valid defense to keep bringing home the bacon: everybody else is doing it, so why shouldn’t he? If Weiner turned down his own pork, other members of Congress would step right in to take it for themselves. Without a mass movement for its destruction, pork barrel spending will remain kosher in the halls of government. 

Weiner himself put it most succinctly when SAFETEA-LU passed: “It’s imperative we get our fair share,” he said.