The House has become the latest showcase for the building momentum for openness and accountability in federal appropriations. New rules for the House that require the listing of all earmark sponsors in the Congressional Record passed by a much wider margin than first thought, 245-171. The rule takes effect immediately and will apply to a wide range of legislation and conference reports, forcing earmarkers to own their pork instead of dodging responsibility for the pork.

The vote shows who on the Hill gets the new paradigm, and who still lives in the passing age of pork. Democrats voted 147-45 to defeat the new rule, and that included their leadership. Among those opposing the identification of earmarks are Nancy Pelosi, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Patrick Kennedy, Tom Lantos, Dennis Kucinich, John Conyers, Betty McCollum, Allan Mollohan, Barney Frank, Henry Waxman, and Ike Skelton, some of whom have been named as committee chairs if the Democrats retake control of the House this fall. Alcee Hastings voted to continue the practice of secret earmarking, no surprise given his impeachment for bribery that removed him from the federal judiciary, and the Democrats want to put him in charge of the Intelligence Committee. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the committee now, voted to support the rule.

In contrast, only 24 Republicans voted against the rule, and all but two of those are appropriators. Twelve GOP appropriators voted for reform, however, including Ray LaHood, a surprise supporter of the rule.

The White House was pleased by the result:

I applaud the House of Representatives for voting again this week in support of greater transparency and accountability in government. H.Res. 1000 would shine a brighter light on earmarks by requiring disclosure of the sponsors of each provision. This reform would help improve the legislative process by making sure both lawmakers and the public are better informed before Congress votes to spend the taxpayers' money.

It looks like the politicians in DC have started to hear the message. The paradigm has shifted, but the new tools we have received have to be used vigorously in order to ensure that the gains we have made are not lost. If the searchable databases never get searched and porkers never have to answer for their abuses, then we have won little. We need to see the birth of 10,000 blogs in order to keep a laser focus on the use of earmarks for political cronyism and bribery and eliminate them from our politics.

Ben Franklin responded to a question about the Constitutional Convention by saying, "A Republic, if you can keep it." We now have the tools to bring more openness to our government ... if we can keep them.

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