Horatio at the Bridge

Robert Novak offers a story of courage in the face of pork: Republican Senators Jim DeMint, Tom Coburn, John McCain, John Sununu, and Jeff Sessions have united to block $19,000,000,000 of ear-marked appropriations in the lame-duck session. Novak reports:

The bipartisan dismay the dissenters have caused cannot be exaggerated. Hard-working staffers are beside themselves that their lame-duck feast of pork is being thwarted. K Street lobbyists are frustrated that they are being deprived of a vehicle for their special-interest amendments...

These senators may well temporarily close what Tom Coburn calls the "favor factory" maintained by Republicans. Will the Democrats try to reopen it next year?

My guess is that a bipartisan minority of, say, 25 senators would be sufficient to grind pork to a crawl (if not a halt), mostly by making a big deal of every single bill and shaming their colleagues into ethical behavior. However, there are so few principled lawmakers that this seems unlikely.

The Democrats have promised to curb ethics violations (see below). They are focusing on one side of the transfer - from special interests to lawmakers. But they ignore the other side - from lawmakers to special interests, and thus leave the entire proposal toothless. As long as power is its own reward, the special interests can fulfill their side of the quid pro quo by keeping the lawmakers in office. The ethical emperor has no clothes.