Republicans Break Promise to Ban Earmarks

Republicans were running off at the mouth about earmarks and wasteful government spending, even Mitch McConnell agreed to ban earmarks. But, in the fastest broken promise ever, Jon Kyl, who's battling Obama over the START treaty, reaped a big one:

Senate Republicans' ban on earmarks — money included in a bill by a lawmaker to benefit a home-state project or interest — was short-lived.
Only three days after GOP senators and senators-elect renounced earmarks, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, got himself a whopping $200 million to settle an Arizona Indian tribe's water rights claim against the government.
Kyl slipped the measure into a larger bill sought by President Barack Obama and passed by the Senate on Friday to settle claims by black farmers and American Indians against the federal government. Kyl's office insists the measure is not an earmark, and the House didn't deem it one when it considered a version earlier this year. But it meets the know-it-when-you-see-it test, critics say.AP