Is U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for or against earmarks? The DFL is confused.

Bachmann, the 6th District Republican, generally seems to think earmarks are a sign of pork-barrel spending and therefore a bad thing. Yet, in a recent mailer to her constituents, she took credit for an $803,000 earmark for St. Cloud Metro Bus. "In my first year in the Congress, I requested local earmarks for my district and was fortunate to secure funding for important local projects,'' she wrote to her constituents.

Yet, the DFL points out that Bachmann actually voted against the bill that included the earmarks she requested, saying the bill was "excessive."

In fact, Bachmann's office points, she's only against wasteful spending on earmarks. Her request for slightly more than $800,000 for transit in St. Cloud apparently falls in the non-wasteful category.

"Congresswoman Bachmann did submit the request and fight for the St. Cloud transit earmark,'' Miller said in an email this morning after this post first appeared. "And her hard work fortunately paid off. What she voted against was a pork-laden, budget-laden omnibus spending bill that included over 9,000 earmarks and wasted billions in Minnesota taxpayer dollars. It's bills like that that make it clear that the earmarking process must change and get Members like Congresswoman Bachmann to take this principled stand.''

The "pork-laden, budget laden omnibus spending bill'' that Bachmann voted against included the $800,000 earmark. —Doug Grow