. . .UPDATE, 3:13 p.m.: John Hart, a spokesman for Senator Coburn, responds:

This post misses the most important question. How many jobs did this project create? According to our estimate, which was reported by CBS, .4 percent of a job (salary) was created at a cost of $144,000. The stimulus was supposed stimulate economic activity and this project has failed in that regard.

On the less important question. Was it unfair to not do more to emphasize the good intentions of the researchers? Absolutely not. Americans are intelligent and they implicitly understand that all research is conducted for the purpose of benefitting humanity, however tangential, circuitous and duplicative the approach may be. The administration is being characteristically thin-skinned to expect us to lavish praise on the researchers’ good intentions. Could giving monkeys cocaine lead to groundbreaking treatments for humans? Perhaps. Could the money have been better spent elsewhere in order to stimulate the economy? Absolutely.