News release arrives from Sen. Blanche Lincoln. It notes that her opponent. Rep. John Boozman, once a fan of earmarked pork projects for Arkansas, has sworn off of them this year to comport with Republican campaign strategy.

Lincoln says she will keep fighting for Arkansas’s share of federal spending for worthy projects.

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Stipulated: Boozman’s a hypocrite. Arkansas is a needy state. It’s foolish to be the only state to unilaterally disarm in the fight for federal money. Republicans are steadily howling for highway money for Northwest Arkansas and Boozman has given up the fight. I get it.

But darned if I don’t think this news release from Lincoln is a loser politically. Arkansas deserves a good return on its investment? Everybody knows we’re a welfare state, that we get back more than we put into the federal system.

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For anybody who is buying into the shallow Republican deficit argument, Lincoln’s release almost highlights Boozman as a man of principle.

The messaging sucks, no surprise in this disaster of a campaign.

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Get specific. Name names and oxen gored. Can the bureaucratic palaver.

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