Spending: The president's ouster of the civilian head of the Army Corps of Engineers is brutal by Washington standards. But it's also welcome.

Assistant Secretary of the Army Mike Parker since his first day on the job sought more funding for the corps. As a former member of Congress from Mississippi, he had plenty of friends on Capitol Hill who shared his views.

You see, projects by the corps are great for spreading the pork around back home. In the practice known as earmarking, lawmakers push through river dredging, levee building and flood-control ditches - often without any thought to the costs vs. benefits.

Parker went up to the Senate Budget Committee last week and complained that his budget request of $6 billion for the corps had been slashed. And the Office of Management and Budget wanted a 10% cut in spending from last year to $4.2 billion.

"After being in the administration and dealing with them, I still don't have warm and fuzzy feelings for them," he told the committee. "I'm hoping that OMB understands we're at the beginning of the process. If the corps is limited in what it does for the American people, there will be a negative impact."

That was music to the free-spending ears of the committee. But it was treachery to the only president who's earned an MBA.

So President Bush let Parker go. The move tells Congress in general that holding the line on spending is important to this White House. It also tells Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, a friend and supporter of Parker, that it will not be business as usual. The requirements of the war mean different priorities have to be set. And the pork barons on Capitol Hill should know it.

They're sputtering even now, but they can't avoid the message of this shot across the bow.

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