by Paul Jacob

We're not alone: a whole lot of Americans want more transparency in government.

So a bill in the works, sponsored by Senators Tom Coburn and Barack Obama, became popular almost immediately. It would require the federal government to maintain a comprehensive, easily searchable online database detailing all the proposed pork . . . who is set to get how much for what project.

With faster and fuller knowledge of what Congress aims to do with our money, we taxpayers would be more likely to push our representatives to trim the pork. Effectively.

Yet an anonymous Senator, using parliamentary procedures, mucked up the works to block the bill.

Online agitators led by Glenn Reynolds, a blogger who runs Porkbusters, set to work to smoke the bad guy out. Who was this Senator X, this Ostructionator?

A blog called Immodest Proposals put its money on either Senator Byrd or Senator Stevens, arguing that, "They both fit the profile, are prolific abusers of pork, self righteous, been in the Senate longer than I've been alive, have been silent or hostile to the whole porkbusters movement. Sen. Byrd is an avid student of parliamentary procedure."

Well, the mask was soon ripped away. The guilty party turns out to be Senator Stevens of Alaska, of Bridge-to-Nowhere fame.

The secret identity of the Obstructionator may have been closely guarded, but it's no secret why some of our rulers don't want us to be well informed about what they're up to.

Paul Jacob's "Common Sense" is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org.