Tonight after having some broiled pork chops with all the trimmings for dinner, I checked my e-mail and found out that U.S. Senator Max Baucus had sent me an e-mail with the subject, “Bringing Home the Bacon,” just before he and the other democrats in the House and Senate had put their tails between their legs and left town, defeated.

In the email, which had photos and quotes from Senator 1.5 for Montana (Jon Tester), they touted the 120 earmarks they had worked so hard in obtaining, and they told me they had personally fought off veto threats from President Bush. Words like “secured” “rescued” “fought for” were scattered throughout the e-mail.

There were close to 11,400 earmarks inserted into the 2008 appropriations bills. Yes 11,400. Montana received only around 120 plus a minuscule few on defense appropriations. The defense appropriations bill was passed earlier this session. Ouch.

Bringing home the bacon? Nope. It’s more like bringing home vienna sausages when you promised steak. Until there’s a complete change in the way earmarks are done, Montana will lose out in the senate no matter how many “Bringing Home the Bacon” e-mails are sent. Even if the are peppered with the word “powerful” a few times.

Senators Baucus and Tester have no seats on the Appropriations Committee, but that does not stop them from getting a few requests, nor does it prevent them from taking credit for all of them, which the Montana media seems to give them a pass. Most, if not all, of the heavy lifting on appropriations bills is done by Congressman Denny Rehberg, who is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. This is especially true when the bills get to the negotiation (conference) stage.

But there’s good news! This session of Congress is over. Now everyone can go through the 3,400+ pages of the bill that contained these 11,400 earmarks and see what goodies were missed in the few hours members were given to review them. And we all thought the Democrats were going to change the method of operation back there!