Senators who haven’t yet gotten their earmark requests tucked into the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill were no doubt gladdened to hear yesterday that the deadline has been extended. That happy news came in an e-mail circulated on Capitol Hill yesterday from Senate Appropriation Committee aide Jeff Kratz. Now lawmakers have until May 4 to get those juicy pork barrel projects funded in the 2008 Labor/HHS/Education spending bill.

There is a revealing line in Kratz’s e-mail that bears comment: “As always, member offices will be responsible for complying with all applicable ethics rules and standards.” Sounds like a routine reminder to senators to abide by the rules, especially now that the new Democratic majority is cleaning up the “culture of corruption” left behind by the GOP, right? In fact, behind that otherwise innocuous sentence is the steadily ripening stench of a broken promise.