Good story by Paul West on the connection between Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski's earmarked federal defense spending and donors to her campaign. She directed tens of millions of dollars in defense spending to top campaign donors Northrop Grumman, Thales Communications and L-3 Communications. She responds by saying it's all for the country and the hard-fighting troops.

"My top priority," the senator said in a statement, "is to ensure that Americans serving on the front lines have the funding, equipment and technology they need to protect our nation."

Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, another Maryland defense-earmark overachiever, has a more interesting response. He doesn't know who his campaign donors are, an aide says.

Lisa Wright, a longtime Bartlett aide, said the Western Maryland congressman relies on his experience as a scientist in requesting earmarks and deliberately stays ignorant about campaign donors.

Bartlett "avoids anything to do with campaign funding," she said. His campaign organization routinely makes the names of his donors public, as required by federal election law. But the aide, asked if Bartlett knew that Northrop Grumman was a prime funding source for his re-election efforts, replied, "I sincerely doubt it."

Bartlett is enough of a nonconformist and idealist that I believe her.