NYT editorial: Round Up the Usual Prospects

To no one’s shock, the lame-duck session is offering daily profiles in hypocrisy by lawmakers who made loud campaign vows to “change the culture” of Washington. In the Senate, prominent Republicans who took the anti-earmark pledge as part of the Tea Party crusade against deficits now must deal with a mammoth $1.2 trillion government spending bill that happens to be routinely packed with their own customized pork. What to do?

“The simple answer is: I’m going to vote against the bill and refuse all of those earmarks,” said Senator John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, righteously disowning his own earmarks when cornered by a reporter asking how he had any credibility in the face of home-state pork.

Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican of Mississippi who took his party’s Demon Earmark pledge last month, was asked about his 223 projects worth $415 million tucked into the spending bill. The senator firmly vowed not to pursue earmarks — next time. This time, he’s decided to vote against the bill as a first step to — yes — “change the way business is done in Washington.”

It’s not often that politicians are caught having to call their own bluff. The earmark discomfort is deserved since the issue was presented to voters as a fool’s-gold diversion from factors far larger and more politically difficult if politicians ever get serious about closing the budget deficit. Both parties have denounced earmarks in recent elections, to no effect on deficit growth.

(More here.)