Woodstock earmark a bad trip for GOP

WASHINGTON – Hippies used to say if you remember Woodstock, you weren’t really there. Republicans say presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton can forget about getting $1 million in taxpayer funds for a Woodstock museum.

Clinton and Charles Schumer, Democratic senators from New York, want to earmark the federal money for a museum that would commemorate the 1969 music festival in their state.

“Woodstock Museum is a shining example of what’s wrong with Washington on pork-barrel, out-of-control spending,” said John McCain, Arizona senator and Republican presidential hopeful.

Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., moved Thursday to strip the Woodstock earmark from a massive health and education spending bill on the Senate floor. They won a key 52-42 vote, and the earmark was dropped.

“With all the pressing needs facing our country today, from entitlement reform to children’s health care to the war in Iraq, the idea that the federal government should fund a museum that celebrates a 38-year-old concert is simply absurd,” Kyl said.

The Woodstock museum – officially called the Museum at Bethel Woods – is due to open next year. Bethel is the town in upstate New York where organizers eventually put on the three-day Woodstock Music and Art Fair, featuring Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Band and others.