PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Here’s some good news:

Tax money spent on small projects that only benefit one congressional district or region are often slipped into legislation at the 11th hour — a time-worn and much criticized part of Congress known as pork-barrel spending.

Each year the Citizens Against Government Waste exposes that pork in its annual “Congressional Pig Book.” The group had no problem sniffing out the pork this year, although it says it “will be a smaller pig than usual.”

The private, nonpartisan organization says that reduction is a welcome change from past pork-barrel spending levels.

Why the change in 2006 spending? Partly because only two of the 11 proposed spending bills were passed last year, giving legislators fewer places to hide the pork. Also, the new Democratic Congress enforced a moratorium on earmarks, the projects that members slip into appropriations legislation usually without the full scrutiny of Congress.

Pelosi has been pretty good on pork so far. Let’s hope she sticks with that. And certainly the overall reduction in pork is good news.

UPDATE: Does PorkBusters deserve more credit than the ABC article gives it? Probably, but I was trying to be modest . . . .