The sterile, confused lame-duck session of the Republican-controlled 109th Congress ended with a quiet victory by reformers that staved off an estimated 10,000 earmarks. But it could not be called a farewell to pork. As the House approached adjournment Thursday, Democrats signaled they may countenance a return to free and easy spending ways when they assume the majority Jan. 4.The hero of the lame-duck session was freshman Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina. He was instrumental in blocking a Senate-House conference on a military construction appropriations bill, which would then be used as the last train out of town to carry pork. But just as the reformers were cheering Thursday, a coalition of Republicans and Democrats defeated a procedure designed to inhibit Pentagon earmarks.
That leaves an unanswered question for the new Democratic majority. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the dynamic new member of the House Democratic leadership, has exhorted colleagues not to forget that their campaign against the Republican "climate of corruption" brought them into power. But does Emanuel's concept of reform go beyond new lobbyist control regulations and extend to the bipartisan addiction to pork-barrel spending?