A thorough slapping around for the Democrats from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress’ pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify “earmarks” — lawmakers’ requests for specific projects and contracts for their states — in documents that accompany spending bills.

Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them.

I won’t try to tell you that Republicans are guilty of this sort of chicanery as well, but the Democrats stormed into their slim majority promising that they’d make government more open and transparent, specifically in the area of earmark appropriations.  Yet it has been anything but that.

No wonder the Democrats have approval numbers that are even lower than the President’s.  Not that the media will be reporting that fact any time soon.