That headline is a little misleading—due to a quarrel between Clear Channel, the administrators of the SmartBike bike-sharing program, and the City, it’s unlikely that Georgetown will get a SmartBike station any time soon.

Nonetheless, two House Republicans,  Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), are saying that the very idea of providing Georgetown residents with free bicycles was one of the “11 worst pork-barrel projects of the 111th Congress,” according to Fox News.

Kirk and Price don’t have all their facts straight—they allege that the stimulus provided Georgetown with $3 million in funding for bicycle racks, when in fact Georgetown was merely named as one of 40 new SmartBike locations in a $3 million dollar expansion of the program (and the bike racks came with actual bikes)—but something tells me we would have made their worst-of list either way.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) railed against bikes for wealthy Georgetown residents back in March, too, at which time the League of American Bicyclists made an argument for considering bike funding as a “stimulus project.”

What else made this list? “$550,000 for a skateboard park in Pawtucket, R.I.,” “$3.8 million for an urban art trail in Rochester, N.Y.,” and “$500,000 for fish food in Missouri, to help defray the costs for state fish farmers.”

Photo from Flickr user M “Annie” Gaddis.

Mitt Romney withdrew from the G.O.P. 2008 primary and Senator John McCain outlined his platform to a crowd of roughly 10,000 people at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today. Speakers at the thirty-fifth annual CPAC, held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel also included Vice President Dick Cheney and Congressman Ron Paul.

Former Virginia Senator George Allen used his introduction to endorse McCain, saying he was convinced by McCain’s integrity.  When McCain finally entered the room, he was greeting by some booing amid the applause.

“I came to political office as a foot soldier of Ronald Reagan,” McCain said, “and I’m as proud of my political heritage now as I was then.”

McCain discussed many issues from fiscal spending, the Iraq War, abortion and Supreme Court appointees. His remarks on immigration elicited jeering and shouts of “No amnesty!” from the audience.  But when he mentioned tax cuts, the audience gave McCain a standing ovation.

“The first thing I will do is make the Bush tax cuts permanent, and increase tax cuts for corporations from 25 to 35 percent,” he said.

McCain ended the speech with a reference to his past as a war hero.  “I have only found true happiness while serving a cause greater than my self interest…which is our country,” he said, “I love her deeply and never tire of serving her.”

Following Romney’s announcement, some of his supporters traded in their Romney paraphernalia for the McCain posters being handed out.

Photo by Vivian Chen, Contributing Editor

First it was the war in Iraq, then Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay. Now, it’s Tom Foley, who’s been struggling to find an acceptable excuse for his behavior—alcoholism, the priest that supposedly molested him as a child. For the moment, it doesn’t seem to be working.

Even George Will is predicting big things for the Democrats in the upcoming elections. He even compared Foley, and the Republican Party, to Elmer Gantry, the sanctimonius firebrand Preacher and title character of an Upton Sinclair novel.

What’s left for Republicans to do? Well, the New York Times is warning of a possible anti-gay witch hunt on Capitol Hill. Our beloved Pat Buchanan (COL ‘61) took the first step down that road on MSNBC earlier this week.

The key quote: “Is it a coincidence that 90 percent of the victims of the priests and the other folks who abuse those altar boys and others, 90 percent of the victims were boys, 90 percent of the perpetrators were men?”

Here’s hoping that, if the Republicans don’t take the high road, it blows up in their face.

Posted by Austin Richardson, Senior Writer