The one thing you can say for Hawai'i senior Sen. Daniel K. Inouye is that he does not seek the limelight.

OK, there was the Watergate Committee, where the nation got to see him on a regular basis. Same thing to a lesser extent with the Iran-Contra investigative committee. And there might be a few other examples.

But for the most part, Inouye labors quietly in the background. He holds few news conferences, is rarely quoted in the national media and tends to stay in the background.

Just for the sake of comparison, a quick search of recent news references on Google turns up 5,246 hits for his junior colleague, Joe Biden. Inouye's tally: 314.

But every year, without fail, Inouye hits one news home run. That's when a group called Citizens Against Government Waste puts out its annual "Pig Book" summary.

This is a report on what the group considers to be "pork," or pork-barrel appropriations, usually achieved through the backdoor system of "earmarking" specific items in larger appropriations bills. While the title the "King of Pork" belongs to Sen. Robert Byrd, certainly Inouye qualifies as the "Prince of Pork."

In fact, this year Inouye was champ in finding special ways to benefit his home state and his constituents.

Under pressure from taxpayer groups and others, Congress has imposed a kind of moratorium on earmarks, the process by which these highly targeted appropriations get into law.

So overall, the dollar amount of pork (as the critics would call it), or earmarks, was the smallest since 1999. A good thing if you oppose government spending. Not so good if you believe government spending is great, as long as it goes to something you are interested in.

The group says Inouye pushed through no less than $319,655,000 in projects directly aimed at the state of Hawai'i. Big-ticket items include $20 million for a program that allows the Army to buy land and put it into conservation as a "buffer" zone between active training areas and developed communities. This is the program that allowed the Army to participate in the purchase of land above Sunset Beach to protect it from development.

Another item was $11.5 million for a project aimed at identifying space objects that may be on a collision course with Earth. More millions went toward research on a bandage component made out of shrimp heads that may prevent infection and promote healing.

As Inouye often points out, our needs are many and our resources are few. You may have questions about these projects, but where — exactly — would you have the money spent?

Reach Jerry Burris at jburris@honoluluadvertiser.com. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.