foot.

Where is the news media on this?  Perhaps McCains second favorite reason why people should elect him (did you know he was a POW?) is that, the first time a spending bill comes across his desk with pork, he will take out his veto pen, he will make them famous, and you will know their names.

Except that he won't, and he just showed that in voting for the pork-stuffed bailout/rescue plan.  Each member of Congress has, in effect, the exact same choice with respect to each piece of legislation that comes for a floor vote as the president:  vote up or vote down.  Congress tried once to give the President the opportunity to veto specific line items in spending legislation, but the Supreme Court struck it down (at the behest of Rudi G.) in Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998).  (During a primary debate, McCain promised to bring back the line item veto.  Then someone on a major news station pointed out that it was stuck down as unconstitutional, and he hasn't brought it up again.)  Thus, under the Presentment Clause, a President can either sign the bill -- as hammered out by Congress -- into law, or kill it.  There is no third option.

And that's why McCain's vote on Wednesday is so telling.  The bill was full of pork (by his own admission), and he voted yes.  Why?  Because, according to McCain, there were bigger issues at stake in this legislation.

But that is precisely why presidents sign into law bills with ear marks and other provisions they don't like.  And there is no reason to think McCain will reach a different conclusion when faced with a similar choice in the White House.  So the next time he pulls out his sharpie (as if any president has ever signed or vetoed any law with a sharpie -- wouldn't it run through?), I really hope someone is there to call bull-hockey-mom on that pledge.