Editorial: Caught in the act
Bloggers crack a Senate mystery
Sacramento Bee
September 1, 2006
A week or so ago, we were grumbling about the arcane practice that allows a single member of the U.S. Senate to sidetrack legislation he or she doesn't like. At the time, there was a mystery about who was holding up a bill to make government more transparent. Now it has been solved, courtesy of the blogosphere.
By contacting the offices of every senator, bloggers across the political spectrum narrowed the suspect list to two: Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska and Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Stevens has admitted putting a hold on the bill to create a database from which taxpayers could find out how and on what the government is spending their money -- including "earmarks," which most people call pork. Byrd's office is still playing cat-and-mouse with the bloggers. Stevens' office said he wanted to be sure the bill wouldn't create a new bureaucracy before allowing it to move ahead. That's ironic coming from a man who is sponsoring a bill to spend $223 million on a bridge to an island with 50 inhabitants.
Byrd has brought billions to his state, largely for federal facilities that have made West Virginia resemble an alternative seat of government. His rationale for holding up an open-government bill should be entertaining -- if he admits he did it.
Stevens and Byrd are the longest-serving members of the Senate; the sponsors of the database legislation are two of its newest members: Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Democrat Barack Obama of Illinois. Whatever lessons one might draw from that, it is certain that those pesky bloggers sure are a force to be reckoned with. Good.
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