I don't know how many of you are on Jim Nussle's email list, but yesterday's edition nearly put me into a coma - its noxious photos, mind numbing stories of lemonade stands and lunches, and exceptional ability to kill the interesting somehow combine the worst aspects of a PowerPoint presentation with granny's grand canyon slide show.

In short - it is an unholy alliance between boredom and idiocy. Of course, it does provide a few opportunities for fun. "Jim's Journal," as it's called, tells us that Jim is doing what every other self-respecting candidate in the state does this time of year - he's spending significant time at the internationally-acclaimed Iowa State fair.

Of course, Jim has something else in common with too many politicians - wherever he is, he seems to be at the same tricks. Indeed, true to form, Jim did what he does best. He served up pork. Heck, Jim's been doing it for years. As House Budget Chairman he presided over the evaporation (er, trickledown?) of hundreds of billions of dollars. Where'd it all go? Sure, tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans played a huge part, as did Halliburton contracts.

But another often overlooked culprit was the astronomical growth in pork barrel spending that picked up speed in the early 90's and only
accelerated under Nussle's tenure as HBC.