Frisco Nan's About Face on Earmarks

The Democrats in the House of Representatives have truly disgraced themselves these past few weeks.

David Obey, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, attempted to explain why he and his colleagues were reneging on Frisco Nan's promise to reform earmarking.

In and editorial in The Wall Street Journal on June 13th, Obey is quoted as saying, regarding examining earmarks,

"The only real opportunity you have to prevent something stupid from happening is to have the protection of the staff who know the most about these programs and can fight something if they think it smells."

Great. Government by staffers. Like any staffers will dare to take on some other Democratic Representative for whom they do not work?

Obey went on to 'reform' the earmark process so that no earmarks would be publicly discussed before voting.

In the same Journal article, the LA Times-Bloomberg survey reported that Congress' approval rating is now down to 27%, with 63% of voters saying it's "business as usual."

By the way, that 27% rating is lower than the President's.

Apparently, after pressure brought about by Republicans in the House, Obey and Nan finally relented on keeping earmarks secret prior to the House-Senate conference report.

So much for a new era of responsive government under a woman Speaker. Or Democratic Speaker. Guess the gender doesn't really matter, after all.