A novel earmark solution: anonymity

Mike Doyle (D-PA) has tired of hearing criticism about his eponymous pork project, the Doyle Center for Manufacturing Technology. Doyle has a unique solution for this problem — rather than stop sending truckloads of dollars in earmarks, he’s asking to have his name removed from the center:

Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) has asked to have his name removed from a facility he created because he’s tired of being criticized for building a “monument to me.”

Earmark opponents have assailed Doyle for using a $1.5 million earmark to build the Doyle Center for Manufacturing Technology in 2003. …

Doyle recently told the center’s board of directors to remove his name from the organization’s title, but he still wants earmarks for it. In fact, he said this year he has requested what he believes to be another $1.5 million in the defense appropriations bill (he said he can’t be sure of the exact amount).

“We were getting a lot of heat solely because it had my name on it,” Doyle said. “I’m not abandoning my work for the center. Those people down there are doing great work.”

Uh, excuse me? I don’t think the problem is the name on the building — it’s the tax money going into the coffers of the Doyle Center. It doesn’t do any good to change the signage if the porkage will continue.

How corrupt is this? Readers will remember that John Murtha, one of Doyle’s close pork buddies, has given hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to Concurrent Technologies, the firm that Murtha practically birthed through pork. Guess who has an executive position with the Doyle Center? Edwards J. Sheehan, the CFO and senior VP of Concurrent, also serves as the chair of Doyle Center’s board of governors. Quelle surprise!

Doyle claims that the center will spur the growth of defense contractors in the area. However, after five years, the center can only point to six companies that have had any involvement at all in Doyle’s pork barbecue. With another $1.5 million in public funds, maybe they can bring that number to a full dozen. Of course, Doyle still gets his nice endorsement on the center’s website regardless of how few companies they assist.

Jeff Flake laughed out loud when The Hill told him of Doyle’s plans. The rest of us taxpayers may have a different physical reaction.