Pleasantly surprised

I had reservations about John Boehner as House Majority Leader. By the time all was said and done, I wondered if Arizona's John Shadegg wasn't the better choice.

Be that as it may, Boehner has turned out to be a bit of a pleasant surprise so far. This encouraged me. I've not followed the recent porkbusters rebellion over Congressional earmarks. I agree, it's important stuff but just doesn't get the juices flowing.

Having said that, I'm still grateful to see progress:


"Today was an important day for the House as an institution. Passage of these earmark reforms is a sign that Republicans are returning to the reform agenda that closed the House Bank and House Post Office, ended decades of Democrat rule in Congress, and put us in the majority 12 years ago. Changing the way Washington does business starts with changing the way Congress does business. Republicans recognize that, and today we took real action to change the way in which Congress spends the people's money.

"Members should be ready and willing to put their name on the projects they request, and if they aren't willing to do that they shouldn't expect the American people to pay for it. Bringing greater sunshine into the earmarking process will increase public confidence in how the American people's tax dollars are spent. Speaker Hastert and Chairman Dreier deserve great credit for their leadership on this issue, and I'd like to thank all our committee chairmen and members who have worked with us to bring greater accountability and transparency in how Congress spends taxpayer dollars."

And Shadegg: "No one can defend opposing this reform. The only possible explanation for voting against this rule change is that a member of Congress wants to be able to secretly spend the taxpayers' money on personal pork projects without being accountable."

Representative Sensarling of Texas' 5th District had the best commentary of the day:


$273,000 to implement garden mosaics at a local university.

$179,000 to produce hydroponic tomatoes.

$550,000 for a museum of glass. $400,000 for an Italian market in the Bronx. A half a million dollars for buses at Disneyland.

Mr. Speaker there are many worthy earmarks, worthy of this institution. But today there are still too many that do not pass the smell test, that do not pass the laugh test, and certainly do not pass the fiscal responsibility test.