Obama's Earmark Reform? ShamWow!
by: Leslie K. Paige

On March 11, 2009 President Obama signed the fiscal year (FY) 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, which contained the nine remaining 2009 spending bills worth $410 billion. After making dizzying campaign promises to eliminate congressional earmarking once he won the Oval Office, the President, out of the sight of the media, signed a bill containing thousands of earmarks and schooled taxpayers on his new and revised view of earmarks.

Ethical Lapses
by: Leslie K. Paige

In November, 2006, just after the sweeping victory by Democrats in the House of Representatives, the newly-minted Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) promised that her leadership team would create ???the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history.??? This seems like ancient history now. Since then, the House has been rocked by several allegations of unethical conduct. Yet, the House leadership's general reaction to the ethical violations that seem to bloom almost daily appear to follow a pattern of partisan posturing and denial, followed immediately by paralysis, and ending with little or no accountability.