Crist's Shot Ricochets Off Pork Barrel

Politicians who live in glass mansions shouldn't throw stones. But here comes Charlie Crist accusing Marco Rubio of loading up on pork through Community Budget Issue Requests.

Shocked? Hardly. Crist, as a former state senator, knows the CBIR game. Legislators shamelessly use the system to fund pet projects outside the usual budget channels.

In his first to years as governor, Crist took a meat cleaver to this pork-barreling. He even set a record in 2007 with $450 million in vetoes.

But Crist went soft in the past couple of years, barely nicking the CBIR list.

Sure, Rubio tried to bring the bacon home to Miami-Dade. But as the state's chief executive, Crist has a bigger job.

So where was the guv when Ray Samson's infamous $6 million pork barrel rolled through unscathed? Presented as funding for a building for Northwest Florida State College, the package was actually destined for an airport hangar sought by a Panhandle developer and contributor.

If the ousted and disgraced House speaker was a scam artist, Crist was an enabler ... or just asleep at the wheel. Either way, not good.