Somebody's busted

This is maybe the greatest story that I have ever heard about a politician getting caught being sneaky.

There is a bill that is currently making its way through the halls of Congress (S.2590) that would create an online publicly searchable database of government spending on things like contracts, grants, insurance, loans, etc. The purpose is to make the government more accountable to its spending. Sound pretty good right? Well, there are many people in the Senate that support this bill, including rightist wacko Bill Frist and leftist wacko Hillary Clinton. In fact, it went quickly through committee (a step where most bills die - see SchoolHouse Rock's "How a Bill becomes a law) and was poised to pass the Senate overwhelmingly - until a Senator put a "secret hold" on the bill. What is a secret hold? Its where a member secretly tells his party leader that he wants the bill held, in this case just before the Senate goes on break. How do you stop a secret hold? Only the person that ordered the hold can do that? (Yes, I know how sneaky that sounds).

Here's the part that I love. Some bloggers got together and started a campaign to find out who the "secret" person is. They simply told their readers to call their Senators and ask them if they put the hold on S.2590. The most up-to-date list that I saw is at TPMmuckraker. Through their efforts and the efforts of readers from Porkbusters.org, GOPProgress, and other sites, the list has been narrowed to six: Robert Byrd (D-W. Virginia), Mike Crapo (R- Indiana) who refused to answer, Judd Gregg (R- New Hamp.), Orrin Hatch (R- Utah), Ted Stevens (R - Alaska), and Robert Bennett (R - Utah) who I guess had a staffer sort of deny. My money is on Ted Stevens because he is a sneaky bastard or Mike Crapo because he won't answer. I think that it is also possible that one of the Senators that denied being the "secret holder" is lying. Either way, someone is an asshole and I would think has guaranteed a loss in the next election.

Yeah for blogging.