I DON’T SEE A DOWNSIDE TO THIS: GOP senator’s protest grinds Senate to a halt. “At issue is one of Coburn’s top issues — greater transparency in government — as well as his sworn enemy, the powerful Appropriations Committee. Coburn had added to the energy and water bill a provision requiring reports that agencies are required to send to the appropriations panels be made available to other lawmakers and to the public. It’s part of his drive for greater transparency in government.”

MSNBC calls this a “pet idea” of Coburn’s by way of diminishing it. It might more accurately be called “another broken campaign promise” on the part of Obama and the Democratic Congressional leadership.