Don't Go Into The Light

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Via InstaPundit:

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Here's a joint statement by a number of bloggers on the House leadership election:

We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.

We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.

But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.

As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.

Signed,

N.Z. Bear, The Truth Laid Bear

Hugh Hewitt, HughHewitt.com

Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com

Kevin Aylward, Wizbang!

La Shawn Barber, La Shawn Barber's Corner

Lorie Byrd, Polipundit

Jeff Goldstein, Protein Wisdom

John Hawkins, Right Wing News

John Hinderaker, Power Line

Jon Henke / McQ / Dale Franks, QandO

James Joyner, Outside The Beltway

Mike Krempasky, Redstate.org

Michelle Malkin, MichelleMalkin.com

Ed Morrissey, Captain's Quarters

Scott Ott, Scrappleface

John Donovan / Bill Tuttle, Castle Argghhh!!!

The fiscal irresponsibility of our current congress really irks me, so naturally I signed up as soon as I heard. You can go and sign up here.

One thing I noticed that I hope gets corrected - NZ Bear appears to be soliciting cosigners to this statement, but not a single one of the 160+ signers in the comments have been elevated to the list of supporters in the article. It kinda makes it look like the statement is a vehicle to get attention for a select few bloggers and anyone else who may feel strongly about the PorkBusters cause is relegated to a background cheerleading post for those who are the real supporters - i.e., the names that don't show up in the comments. Don't misunderstand - I don't care about getting a mention in the article, as it's not about getting links for me. But maybe a few of the commenters won't see it the way I do and be terribly disappointed.

However, maybe NZ doesn't want to add any signers-on. If that's the case, fine, but he needs to clarify the the statement

"If you would like to be known as also supporting this statement, please include a comment below, or Trackback to this post on your blog."

to something sounding a little less inclusive.

Either way, I still support the cause, and will continue to in the future.

Update (22 Jan 06 1:18 PM EST): James Joyner of Outside The Beltway points out in a comment that I misread the intent of NZ Bear's statement:

LB,

I'm not sure how one would interpret "If you would like to be known as also supporting this statement" as "If you would like me to edit this statement to include your name."

Those who fought in the War for Independence thereby signaled their support for the Declaration of Independence. They were not, however, asked to sign the document post hoc.

Upon taking a second look, I realize he's right. My humble apologies for the error - I misread this one - badly, I'm afraid. Thank you to James for setting me straight.