Republican Senators Thad Cochran (Mississippi) and Richard Shelby (Alabama) are currently being counted as “definite” supporters of Barack Obama’s budget. Shelby has a reported $114 million in earmarks in the bill, and Cochran has $76 million.

These guys represent, at least in this case, just what’s wrong with the GOP and why they keep (deservedly) losing at the polls: They don’t walk the talk.

Here is the note I sent to each of them on Tuesday:

Dear Senator ______,

The nation is far more important than any one state’s or any one politician’s earmarks.

I strongly urge you not to be the Republican vote that lets President Obama saddle my children (and theirs) with even more debt than he already has.

I strongly urge you not to be the Republican vote that allows Democrats to say that the budget was a bipartisan effort, taking away a lot of political leverage for future fiscally conservative candidates.

You are theoretically a conservative and a Republican. Please act like one when the vote on Obama’s budget comes to the floor. I expect repugnant behavior from Arlen Specter, but I and the nation expect better from you.