Chairman Lewis and Earmarks.

Over the last few years, earmarks on appropriation bills had exploded out of control. I wondered why; because, this went against every fiscally conservative bone in my body. And, I thought, against the Republican Party philosophy also.

Well, my friends, I ask you to read this article of which I will excerpt a few paragraphs.

Now there is what might turn out to be a large-scale congressional scandal involving questionable financial dealings between California Republican congressman Jerry Lewis and his friend, lobbyist Bill Lowery.

Over the years, Lewis has done one favor after another for Lowery clients, and Lowery and his clients paid the congressman back by contributing what amounted to more than one third of his total campaign kitty.

The key to their arrangement is a gimmick called the "earmark," by which the chair of the Appropriations Committee can attach small favors to spending bills without telling anyone. Abramoff called the Appropriations Committee under Lewis a "favor factory." And indeed, earmarks have taken off under Lewis. In 1998, Congress OK'd 2,000 earmarks, worth $10.6 billion. By 2004 earmarks had jumped to 15,584, worth $32.7 billion.

This is why it no longer matters if the GOP passes a lobbyist reform bill as Kevin talked about in a previous post. They can flog themselves on the Capitol Steps for all I care. They need to go. Lock, stock and barrel. Between the lobbyist scandal, their inability to do their job as a check on Bush, and the Christian Rights desire to control every aspect of our life; they are destroying this nation and our democracy.