When it comes to pork-barrel politics, I have no patience for Washington’s business-as-usual ways. So when House Republicans chose to appoint a professional porker, Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama, to the Appropriations Committee, I decided to express my disappointment with a tough-love column for Townhall about the Bonner appointment and the fallout from it.

Even though Bonner has promised to clean up his act as a result of his new assignment, we must hold him to his word. Too often in Washington it’s easy for someone’s empty rhetoric to overshadow an abysmal record. And because Bonner has a pretty bad record on earmarks, I’m naturally suspicious.

I would have preferred Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) or Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) for the plum committee assignment instead. But alas, the Porkbusters do not run the show — at least not yet — in Congress. Until then, the best we can do is educate Americans about the choices our representatives are making, and what those decisions might mean for our tax dollars.