Ron Paul, The Small Government Guy

I was waiting for this. From Betsy’s Page, a blog on the right, a story about Ron Paul:

Which Representative from the Houston area would you bet has the most earmark requests? Well, the surprise is that the leader is the libertarian Ron Paul who supposedly disdains almost all federal spending.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Lake Jackson, the Libertarian-leaning contender for the Republican presidential nomination, long has waged war on the widespread federal spending he views as outside constitutional boundaries.

But the congressman, who often votes against spending bills, including funds for the Iraq war, leads the Houston-area delegation in the number of earmarks, or special funding requests, that he is seeking for his district. He is trying to nab public money for 65 projects, such as marketing wild shrimp and renovating the old movie theater in Edna that closed in 1977 — neither of which is envisioned in the Constitution as an essential government function.

Oh, the irony.

I guess that makes Ron Paul similar to Ron Reagan. But then, which Republican candidate isn’t?