Here are today’s headlines from the Kansas congressional delegation:Rep. Nancy Boyda (D) !(New York Times) With New Rules, Congress Boasts of Pet Projects: If the idea was to shame lawmakers into restraint, it did not work. Eight months after Democrats vowed to shine light on the dark art of “earmarking” money for pet projects, many lawmakers say the new visibility has only intensified the competition for projects by letting each member see exactly how many everyone else is receiving. …. When Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, recently ridiculed a provision on the House floor to spend $100,000 on a prison museum near Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Representative Nancy Boyda of Kansas jumped to promote her district’s heritage. Leavenworth County, she boasted, had more prisons than any other county in America. Its inmates, she added, have included Machine Gun Kelly and the Birdman of Alcatraz (before he was sent to Alcatraz). “The local residents are proud of their heritage, and rightly so,” Ms. Boyda told Mr. Flake during a debate on the House floor. The House voted 317 to 112 to keep her earmark. … Because everyone can see who is receiving what, rank-and-file members are clamoring for their districts to obtain a bigger share of the goodies. Similarly, constituents in home districts are becoming bolder as the earmarking process becomes less mysterious. “Democracy is a contact sport, and I’m not going to be shy about asking for money for my community,” said Ms. Boyda of Kansas, who is being given the money for the prison museum. “My guess is that next year I’m going to be putting in more earmarks.”Sen. Pat Roberts (R)!(AP) Despite appearing safe, Kansas senator preparing for tough race: Pat Roberts has more reasons to feel safe heading into a re-election year than most American politicians. The Kansas senator is a Republican in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 75 years. He’s kept both the conservative and moderate wings of his party happy. He has a record of easy election victories, and no Democrat is making noise about trying to unseat him next year. But Roberts isn’t acting like someone who feels safe. He anticipates criticism of his tenure as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He frets publicly about advocacy groups coming after him with millions of dollars in television advertising. He’s already raised more than $2.3 million — more than enough to win a statewide race in Kansas — and he’s stockpiled most of it. Even as Roberts prepares for a tough race that seems unlikely to develop, some fellow Republicans worry about 2008 being another bad year for the GOP. An unpopular war in Iraq, generating headlines about violence and soldiers’ deaths, is behind the pessimism. “There are very few things Pat Roberts can control. He can’t control the national political environment, can’t control Iraq,” said Tony Fabrizio, a GOP consultant and pollster. “One of the things he can control is how much he has in the bank, what his voting record looks like and how prepared he is for the worst.”