The more things change

After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress' pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

(I'm shocked)

Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify "earmarks" - lawmakers' requests for specific projects and contracts for their states.

(I'm stunned)

Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman(David Obey) to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them.

... Such requests total billions of dollars.

...Obey insists he is reluctantly taking the step because Appropriations Committee members and staff have not had enough time to fully review the 36,000 earmark requests that have flooded the committee.

I'm nauseous and the scientific community is united in that fact.

What Obey is doing runs counter to new rules that Democrats promised would make such spending decisions more open.

Do as I say, not as I do-do.