PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Good grief, did somebody declare this “Make a mockery of Democratic promises for reform” week?

The House Appropriations Committee has decided to insert earmarks into all of the FY08 spending bills during the conferencing committees, instead of during the initial House-only process.

This will prevent lawmakers like Jeff Flake from offering amendments to strip out wasteful pork projects…which is EXACTLY why David Obey, the Approps Chairman, is changing the rules. In defending his move, Obey said ($),

“It’s my job to protect the committee.”

Apparently, Obey’s job to protect the American taxpayer is a lower priority. In a recent press release, Flake said, “This is a huge step backwards on earmark reform. As bad as the earmark process is now, this would make it immensely worse.”

On this, the porkbusting blogosphere should raise its alert status to DEFCON 1. First the Murtha debacle and now this? Things are getting out of control.

Actually, they’re getting back under the control of the same old bunch of sleazoids. Meet the new boss, yada yada.

UPDATE: And the new guys aren’t helping: Freshmen fail ethics test. Congratulations to Jim Cooper, though, for doing the right thing.