When Hall-of-Famer Mickey Mantle clouted the ball out of the park, the home run was called a "tape-measure shot." But no one ever actually took out a tape measure to quantify Mantle's clout. This appropriations season -- for the first time ever, thanks to earmarks disclosure -- the clout of members of Congress can be measured in dollars, down to the nearest million or so. Let's have a look at the Commerce-Justice-Science (C-J-S) bill, approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 28 by a 28-1 vote, and see how the home run derby contestants measure up. Over 600 earmarks comprising a total of $470 million were disclosed in the bill. C-J-S subcommittee chair Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and ranking member Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) socked away about $25 and $93 million respectively. Shelby's take alone was roughly 40 percent of all the GOP dollars. Other senatorial sluggers:

• Thad Chochran (R-MS): $57 million
• Daniel Inouye (D-HI): $20 million
• Robert Byrd (D-WV): $16 million

Let's keep things in perspective though: earmarks account for a fraction of one percent of all the spending in the $54.4 billion bill. Source: Congressional Quarterly ($)