S.W.I.N.E.

This is my new favorite acronym - ever - which stands for "Senators Who Initiate Needless Expenditures." I'd like to say I can claim credit for it, but it's an offshoot of a title coined by a caller who phoned Jed Babbin recently while he was sitting in for talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Andy Roth brings the acronym to mind today as he points to this post by Townhall.com's Tim Chapman.

This week, Senator Inoye took the Senate floor to offer an amendment to the Labor HHS appropriations bill. When Senator Inoye took the Senate floor, the only Senators in the chamber were Inoye, Harkin and Specter -- thereby making it impossible for any other Senators to object to the pending Inoye amendment.

The amendment Inoye offered was to name two federal buildings after Senators Harkin and Specter. Here is the relevant text of the amendment:

At the appropriate place in title II, insert the following: SEC. __. (a) The Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center Building (Building 21) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hereby renamed as the Arlen Specter Headquarters and Emergency Operations Center.

(b) The Global Communications Center Building (Building 19) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hereby renamed as the Thomas R. Harkin Global Communications Center.

Ugh. And I thought we had issues with Supreme Court nominees. If this amendment passes, these two buildings will henceforth be known as the "Flotsam and Jetsam Buildings." Respectively, of course.