Again, the IOKIYAR syndrome strikes:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has vowed to bring the Senate to a standstill unless congressional leaders agree to allocate $40,000 for a federal study on deepening the Port of Charleston.

Graham says one out of five jobs in South Carolina stem from trade through Charleston’s busy port, and he warns the entire state economy will suffer unless the port is overhauled.

The senator suffered a setback last week when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) did not include the funding in the 2011 budget deal.

Graham said he will not block the budget agreement to keep the government funded through the end of September but that he will hold up all other business until the matter is resolved. He said he would not delay the stopgap spending measure because it includes funding for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When we fund research for things like cancer, monitoring volcanoes or tsunamis or anything other thing that can save millions of lives and billions in property, the right balks at “government waste”. Here we have a Republican Senator wanting to spend federal dollars to research something that will affect a community of less than 350,000 and the right is silent. While the dollar amount is far less, for some reason I am having flashbacks of the “bridge to nowhere” and the late Ted Stevens.