"pork" is no longer pc.

[J Cullen]

>> U.S. hog raisers want George Bush to stop dragging the word
>> "pork" through the  mud. In a candidates' debate in Iowa,
>> the biggest pork producing state, Bush quipped that he would
>> get rid of pork, quit feeding the hog.
>>     The pork producers are sick and tired of pork being
>> associated with wasteful government spending.
>> Ken Hanly
>
>for what it's worth:  folks have Florida politics to thank for
>term 'pork' becoming synonymous with legislative 'self-interest'...
>
>At mid-century, state was characterized by contrast between expanding
>urbanism (suburbanism, really, FL doesn't correspond to Hofstadter's
>point about US being born in country and moving to city) and rural
>dominated state legislature.  FL had one of most malapportioned
>assemblies in US at that time.
>
>In 1955, columnist James Clendinen of Tampa Tribune newspaper charged
>rural opponents of reapportionment that would have reflected state's
>changing demography with 'fighting for pork rather than principle.'
>Clendinen began referring to this group as 'pork chop gang' and term
>caught on...   Michael Hoover

FYI, Webster's 9th New Collegiate Dictionary dates first usage of "pork
barrel" in 1904, but there's no citation. I would have thought it came
earlier than that. Florida experience may have helped popularize it in the
'50s ...