And I’m proud to tell you, Chris, in 24 years as a member of Congress, I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork barrel project for my state
...

McCain’s claim is false.
In 2006, the senator teamed up with fellow Arizona senator Jon Kyl ® to funnel $10 million toward the University of Arizona for an academic center named after the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. Even Arizona lawmaker, Rep. Jeff Flake ®, said he was planning to “lean against the measure.” The National Taxpayers Union, another traditional McCain ally, questioned why the senator was making federal taxpayers foot the bill for the center.
...
In 2003, McCain also slipped $14.3 million into a defense appropriations bill to create a buffer zone around Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. ...
...
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/06/mccain-earmark/


...
That review located this 1992 letter in which McCain privately pressed the Republican administration of President Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, to secure such a $5 million earmark for a wastewater project in Arizona after Congress had rejected the request in its own spending bill. Spurned by his colleagues, McCain took his case to the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
...
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2...cains_surf.html


"... I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork barrel project for my state
... "

I'm sure the people of Arizona would be happy to hear that their Senator has not been trying to get them extra funding.

This has always been the part of the earmark discussion that irks me. To put it quite simply, a congressman who never asks or receives and earmark is a congressman who probably hasn't done much to help his constituents.

The earmark conversation is a nonstarter to me anyway. Even at its worst, pork spending has never been much more than 1% of the government's total spending.
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/what...pending_is.html

It is still fraud ... "bridge to nowhere" for wealth donors; who can afford to live on an island ...
but want others to build thier bridge; from 49 other states ... who will never use it.
While neglecting other bridges that are in the Federal highway system ....

And no need to lie about it ....

"did he tell you, [today] he is a POW; that never asked for or ......"