<p>Common sense tells you that <a href="/earmarksFAQ">true</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Earmarks">earmark </a>reform would be popular with the American people.<a href="http://www.politico.com/"> Politico's</a> <a href="http://www.politico.com/reporters/PatrickO%27Connor.html">Patrick O'Connor</a> highlights polling numbers that backs this up.  A fresh <a href="http://www.winstongroup.net/">Winston Group poll</a> finds that 78 percent of Americans support the disclosure of earmarks.  Not terribly surprising...But my question is, what's the other 22 percent thinking?</p><p>Congressional Republicans, led by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) have been <a href="http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnBoehner/2007/06/11/house_republicans_declare_war_on_secret_earmarks__wasteful_spending">holding</a> the Democrats feet to the fire on earmark reform.  You don't have to hire a <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,282633,00.html">high-dollar political consultant</a>  to figure out that crusading against earmark abuse is a good issue for the GOP to regain the fiscal responsible credentials they lost during its years of congressional control.</p>  <pre>When the Congress passed the <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1">Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007</a> the Senate short circuited the reform, making sure that their earmarks <a href="/senate_puts_the_anonymity_back_in_earmarks">will not receive meaningful public scrutiny</a>. The Senate needs to read the mood of the public and correct this stunt pronto.  Newly-elected Sen. Claire McCaskill  proposes that senators be required to <a href="http://mccaskill.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=280404&amp;">list the details of all earmarks they propose on their Website</a><a href="http://mccaskill.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=280404&amp;">s</a>. This would allow the public to hold their own elected officials accountable for the way tax dollars were being spent. But <a href="http://www.opencongress.org/people/show/412243_claire_mccaskill">I don't see</a> that she's introduced legislation to require this yet. </pre>