THE EARMARK

If it’s Wednesday July 22nd, 2009, that can only mean one thing: The American Meat Institute is taking over Capitol Hill!

For hungry Capitol Hill staffers who frequent Congressional receptions in search of free food, Wednesday is their Super Bowl: The American Meat Institute hosts its annual Hot Dog Lunch in the courtyard of the Rayburn House Office Building.  Organizers were expected to serve up more than 4,000 free hot dogs, brats, kielbasas and other sausages to Members, staffers, lobbyists and others starting at about 11 a.m. in the courtyard…

To put it into perspective, if the hot dogs served were laid end-to-end, there would be enough to circle the Capitol Rotunda four times, equal the length of 50 D.C. buses and stretch the entire length of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, according to the institute.

There’s a certain poetry in watching our legislators break from reforming our nation’s health care system to spend an hour gorging themselves with meat.  And though we hate to throw a bucket of trichinosis on the party, can we mention the irony that the House spent the earlier part of the day drafting legislation about contracting Type 2 Diabetes?

Of course the day really belongs to the American Meat Institute and its generous hot dog donation. Still, we imagine several key legislators considered this to be a BYOP (Bring Your Own Pork) affair.

How else to explain the fact that Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) showed up to the Hot Dog Lunch with a $50 million hurricane research earmark as a bib?  Or that Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) arrived via an F-22 jet?  Or that Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) offered Chambliss an entire airport at which to land that jet?

Maybe next year the American Meat Institute should just bring buns and ketchup and leave the actual pork to the professionals.