The worm turns on lobbying scandals

The Post had a brief, but illuminating story, about how Democrats are stopping GOP efforts to remove earmarks from the 2009 omnibus spending bill Congress is currently debating. This gem is in the lead:

"The Senate approved $10 million in funding yesterday for clients of a now-disbanded lobbying firm that is under federal investigation for alleged fraud in political contributions to members of Congress..."

The firm, PMA, may have funded campaign donations, mainly to Democrats, through bogus donors. Over the years, various congressman including Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha have secured hundreds of millions in earmarks for PMA clients. It wasn't too long ago that Democrats were using the cudgel of Jack Abramoff to beat the GOP silly in congressional races across the country. You might think the party of reform would stear clear from such rank hypocrisy...no? But apparently not. The money quote in the piece goes to Sen. Daniel K. Inouye:

"Yes, we know that the firm was raided by the FBI and we also know that the firm is in the process of being disbanded. But we also know no one from the firm has been convicted of any crime."

Now, that's reassuring.