Club for Growth: conservative hypocrisy?

Club for Growth President Pat Toomey was recently quoted, "Earmark reform will shine a glaring light on the profligate pork barrel projects and the politicians who sponsor them,"  It didn't occur to him  that earmark reform also exposes the recipients of multi-million dollar pork projects--including the largest contributors to The Club for Growth.

Arkansas millionaire Jackson "Steve" Stephens, Jr., ... has been hounding Mike Huckabee for expanding government for the likes of providing health insurance for children of the working poor, building highways and keeping the sales tax on groceries to improved inadequate schools.

Small government, that’s the mantra of the Club for Growth, which is heavily financed in its political activities by Stephens, heir to the financial fortune built by his father and uncle.

So what?

Well, in the fine print of the defense spending bill approved Thursday, you’ll see $1.6 million to Exoxemis of Little Rock to research and test a substance for wound decontamination. That’s Stephens’ company. Nothing like having taxpayers finance R&D for multi-millionaires.  source 

Steve Stephens, who served on the Board for The Club for Growth in 2004, and the Stephens family have donated some $1.4 million to the Club for Growth. Stephens has ranked consistently among Club for Growth’s leading donors, according to disclosure filings. In the 2004 election cycle, his $800,000 in contributions made him Club for Growth’s No. 1 benefactor.

Membership has its privileges, indeed.