It is with great pride, as well as a bit of dismay, that we here at Porkbusters announce the first entrants to our Hall of Shame. Based on votes from our Porkbusting readers and the judgement of our vast editiorial staff, the legislators below have distinguished themselves in their pursuit of pork, and thereby earned a place of dishonor in our Hall of Shame.

Lifetime Achievement Award
Senator Robert Byrd

In the voting for our Hall of Shame winners, Porkbuster C. Brown summed it up best: "I once saw a park latrine in West Virginia that I thought was not named after him, but someone told me the sign had fallen down." If you're a West Virginian, you have to recognize a central truth: it's Robert Byrd's state --- you're just living in it.

In his over forty-eight years (!) in the United States Senate, Senator Byrd has achieved a pork record that is second to none. From the Robert C. Byrd Expressway to the Robert C. Byrd Freeway; the Robert C. Byrd Institute to the Robert C. Byrd Federal Building (both of them), Senator Byrd has truly left his mark on West Virginia --- and the federal budget. (And let us not overlook the proposed Robert C. Byrd rooms in the U.S. Capitol.) It would be appropriate to erect some kind of monument to his century-spanning resume --- except that he already did so himself.

Senator Byrd's diligence in bringing home taxpayer dollars to his home state earned him the title King of Pork from Citizens Against Government Waste, and we must humbly agree, and therefore grant the good Senator our Lifetime Achievement Award.

Grand Prize Winner
Senator Ted Stevens

If Senator Byrd is the Emperor Palpatine of pork, then Ted Stevens has clear aspirations to be his Darth Vader. The Dark Side of the pork Force runs strong with this one, and it runs straight over a Bridge To Nowhere. But it isn't so much the mere fact of Stevens' ability to bring the bacon back to Alaska that makes him Hall of Shame material: it's the fierce pride with which he does it. His impassioned vow on the floor of the Senate to "be taken out of here on a stretcher" if Senator Tom Coburn's effort to de-fund the famed Bridge passed has entered into the annals of Senate history --- and his continued devotion to Pork has landed him in our Hall of Shame.

Dishonorable Mention: Billy Jean King Award
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Representative Tammy Baldwin

Some women prove that their gender can achieve just as much as men on the field of sport; in academics, or in business. Others, like our dishonorable mention award winners, prove that they can be just as good as the boys at slingin' the pork.

Senator Clinton earned herself a place in Citizens Against Government Waste's own Hall of Shame for her defense of the rather hammy Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Representative Baldwin, for her part, brags of her own ability to bring home the bacon at her House home page, declaring "I'm proud of my record of securing over $100 million federal dollars to support important projects throughout my district" atop her laundry-list-like page of "major accomplishments." One of the first entries: $1.76 million for "Portage bike path development". There's one thing we've learned here at Porkbusters: it's always the damned bike paths.