Political gamesmanship has never seen a clearer illustration than in this CQ Politics article, “Locals Split on DeMint’s Earmark War.”

South Carolina Republican senator Jim DeMint opposes earmarks. Fellow South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham supports earmarks and regularly requests them. (See a list of all 136 of his earmark requests for FY 2010 here.)

Senator Graham’s request for a $400,000 earmark for the Port of Charleston hasn’t been awarded—perhaps because of DeMint’s opposition to earmarks.

Refusing to go along has a price. And in the article it’s a Republican operative who sinks the first shiv, suggesting that DeMint’s failure to earmark hurts South Carolina.

“What you’re hearing [in the state] is: the ideology of the tea party and catering to that movement will come at the expense of jobs in South Carolina,” said Chris Drummond, a South Carolina GOP strategist who formerly worked for Gov. Mark Sanford.

(Think a Republican wouldn’t criticize another Republican? Think again.)

The tax money used for earmarking is paid into the federal kitty by South Carolinians, of course. Getting some of the taxes they pay returned to the state is not the benefit it appears. If their money were left with them in the first place, they would spend it as they see fit, benefitting South Carolinians and their state much more than politically directed spending.

Next, Senate appropriation subcommittee chairman Byron Dorgan (D‑ND) exploits the tension among members of his opposite party, clinical analysis masking his glee: “ ‘In cases where you have a state where one asks for an earmark, the other opposes all earmarks, that makes it a more difficult project to fund,’ he said.”

Then comes payback time. Senator Robert Bennett (R‑UT) was ousted during the primary by a Tea Party/DeMint-favored candidate, so:

The office of subcommittee ranking member Robert F. Bennett (R‑Utah) also told the Greenville News that the port was denied funding in part because “there was no request at all from Sen. DeMint.”

The article recites a number of other viewpoints on earmarking and earmarks in South Carolina, but the highlight is the parade of assailants on DeMint. Politics ain’t patty-cake, and earmark politics are no exception.