GOP Earmark Watchdogs Love Earmarks

After a year of work the Republican committee on earmark reform committee has basically said, "The earmark system is bad. Oh, and, by the way, can we please have some earmarks?"

As reported today by Politico, eight of the ten members on the Republican Select Committee on Earmark Reform sought earmarks, highlighting how little progress the committee has made on its earmark objective. Created on November 19, 2008 by John Boehner and Eric Cantor, the committee was supposed to bring "meaningful change to the process by which Washington spends taxpayers’ hard-earned money."

In that goal, it has done less than promised. Cantor and Boehner proposed that House Republicans refrain from asking for earmarks until the committee's report, which was supposed to be delivered no later than February 16, 2009, was delivers. Most continued to do so anyway.

And a report has not been released yet either. According to Politico, the committee hasn't even met since they missed their deadline nine months ago. As for the committee members themselves, Representatives McMorris Rogers, Jeb Hensarling, and Jeff Flake had this to say:

Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) has requested roughly $129 million in earmarks so far this year. Her staff defended her panel’s work, saying it has “inspired” a GOP website that lists all members’ earmark requests and also inspired “the Republican transparency initiative” that is being pushed now on Capitol Hill.

But McMorris Rodgers’ staff and committee could not identify a single reform recommended by the group. Nor could earmark critic Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), another member of the committee.

Asked about the committee’s progress so far, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) looked at the ground and smirked.

“[The lack of progress is] disappointing, certainly disappointing,” said Flake, a member of the committee and one of the most vocal critics of earmarks in Congress. “We haven’t offered any more comprehensive reform to earmarks."

And that doesn't even cover the actions of committee member Doc Hastings, who requested earmarks for campaign donors. Apparently, only Flake and Hensarling haven't asked for earmarks since being put on the committee.

And who is supposedly to blame for the Republicans not being able to stop their own party members from taking earmarks? Democrats.

When the committee was created, Boehner accused the Democrats of not doing enough work on earmark reform. And now that nothing has come of it, it's because Republicans can't do it alone:

The two GOP leaders invited Democrats to join a bipartisan earmark committee, but they declined to do so. And some Republicans say it’s been hard to move forward on reforms alone.

“We tried to do it ourselves, without Democrats, so it was tough,” said Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), an outspoken transparency and ethics advocate.

Reichert is not a member of the committee, but his frustration is echoed by Flake, who is. Flake is now saying that Republicans "would do well" to say they would take no earmarks next year and force the Democrats to go along.

That's unlikely, given that they couldn't even stop the ten earmark reform committee members from asking for them.