Hold or No Hold

It's getting down to the wire, either someone has lied, or there's a 33%-40% chance that the 'holding' Senator is one of my two 'aging potentates of pork'. (almost like an even more boring version of Deal or No Deal, if you want another disturbing image, picture Sen. Stevens or Sen. Byrd in one of those slinky dresses the models wear on that show)

Dean Esmay just commented on his own post

Sarbanes and Bond just issued denials.

Byrd, Robert C.- (D - WV)
Crapo, Mike- (R - ID)
Gregg, Judd- (R - NH)
Hatch, Orrin G.- (R - UT)
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)

On the other hand, Robert Bennett's denial may not be official. So that's 5 or 6 holdouts, depending on how you count.

How is it that I've never heard of Sen. Crapo? He must keep a low profile (no Sunday shows for him). 4 Republicans and Sen. Byrd. In the Republicans' favor is Sen. Frist's recent statement. In Sen. Byrd's favor, he's daft enough (and safe enough at home) not to care who knows that he killed this bill.

Sen. Gregg has this going against him (from his Wiki), "The University of New Hampshire renamed its Environmental Technology Building as Gregg Hall, because Gregg helped secure $266 million of federal funds for research and development projects for the university".

So to sum up who is left, two Western State Republicans who happen to both be Latter Day Saints (not saying that matters one way or the other, but maybe they feel some sort of obligation not to answer yes or know for some odd point of honor), Two ancient, wheezing, pork loving poster children for the need to impose federal term limits (or even terminal limits). And a three term Republican from a small state who has managed to procure some serious federal funds (all of which, surely was based solely on the merits of UNH and its facilities, and not politcal patronage)

Which reminds me, shouldn't someone rate the entire Senate from 1-100 (for the House maybe a top 25 and bottom 25) regarding their pork consumption habits?

PREVIOUS POSTS on the subject

Profiling the Senate

Which Senator Smells of Pork