If Kevin McCarthy is so opposed to earmarks, at least non-military ones, why did he secure several just last year?

That’s what a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee official is pointedly asking in the latest round of debate over McCarthy’s earmarks — or lack thereof.

“Kevin McCarthy won’t make project funding requests for his constituents because he says the system’s broken. Yet he didn’t have any problem with the same system last year?” asked Andy Stone, western regional press secretary for the DCCC, which supports Democratic House candidates.

“That’s more than inconsistency, that’s blatant hypocrisy and his constituents are paying the price.”

McCarthy, first elected to Congress in November 2006, said he got more and more frustrated with the earmark system as he served in D.C.

“A person can’t learn as they go?” McCarthy asked.

He pointed out he listed his earmarks on his Web site unlike some other Congress members.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog, attributes these 2008 earmarks to McCarthy, either him alone or with other lawmakers:

• $245,000: 16th Street, San Miguel Railroad Crossing Safety                                                        
• $738,000: Applied Agriculture and Environmental Research                                                     
• $143,000: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for purchase of equipment                                                         
• $192,000: California State Bakersfield for nurse training programs, including purchase of equipment                                                                                                                         

• $1,378,000: Central California Ozone Study, San Joaquin Valley Pollution Control District

• $70,500: Bakersfield Police Department                                                                                                 
• $359,000: Cotton Pathology, Shafter                                                                                                      
• $1,000,000: Flow Path Analysis Tool, Redlands; Palmdale                                                

• $1,200,000: Hydrocarbon Boost Technology Demonstrator, Sacramento                                                           
• $8,500,000: Main Base Runway Phase 4, Edwards AFB                                                                
• $35,000,000: Main Base Runway, Phase III, Edwards AFB                                                            
• $637,000: Meadows Field Airport expansion                                                                                     
• $1,600,000: Next Generation Electronic Warfare Simulator, Hunt Valley                                                      
• $842,000: North Valley Regional Water Infrastructure                                                                                
• $1,575,000: Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, Agua Dulce project area                                     
• $1,631,000: Pierce's Disease                                                                                                       
• $282,000: San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department                                                           
• $720,000: Terminal Radar Approach Control Quick Connect Panel and Switchgear, Edwards