If character is what we do when we think nobody is looking, then congressional leaders responsible for the 3,500-plus-page Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 have a lot of explaining to do. They should start by telling us why they posted their “omnibus spending bill” on the Internet only hours before voting on it and in a format that made searching the text laborious, at best. The bill combines 11 regular appropriations bills funding government’s day-to-day operations that should have been passed in October, along with money for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rush to passage is because the government has been operating on a temporary continuing resolution for nearly two months, the Pentagon says it will soon have to furlough thousands of civil servants and Congress wants to go home before Christmas.

Congressional leaders should explain why they included nearly 700 pages of earmarks in a bill nobody was able to read too closely before passage since it’s so big. They shouldn’t be surprised by suspicions they smelled a chance for a Christmas feast at the pork barrel trough without having to worry about uninvited guests — taxpayers, bloggers and journalists — showing up to spoil the party. What they failed to consider is that the Internet empowered people like the Porkbusters, who are eager to shine the light of public accountability on Congress. Within hours of the bill’s posting, eagle-eyed readers were uncovering gems like the $2.6 million noncompetitive award for unstated purposes to the National Center on Education and the Economy, with the money required to be delivered within 30 days. A couple of quick Internet searches revealed that NCEE is a 501 C(3) tax-exempt educational foundation devoted to providing “strategic assistance” to local, state and federal policy-makers on work force development programs in education.

Marc Tucker is NCEE’s most highly compensated officer, receiving more than $800,000 in salary and benefits, according to the organization’s most recent 990 tax return. Tucker is a long-time donor to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., including giving the maximum individual contribution of $4,600 to her presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org. Over the years, he has contributed to other major Democratic leaders like 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Tucker is free to support the candidates of his choice, of course. But NCEE’s tax return showed more than $30 million on hand at the end of the 2006 tax period and the group claims to receive support from many of the nation’s richest private foundations, so why does Tucker’s group need a sweetheart deal paid by the taxpayers for $2.6 million and why the rush? Since the NCEE award is just one paragraph taken from nearly 700 pages of pork barrel in the omnibus spending measure, President Bush should get that veto pen ready.