WASHINGTON -The Cunningham scandal has exposed the lawlessness of congressional practices, one that grows out of the atrophying of the legislative function. Congress has become transformed from the place where factions are moderated to the place where factions rule. Of course the Democrats have pioneered this, and their ascendancy would mean merely that other factions would rule in the place of current ones. See our previous post on this.

Representative Dan Lungren claims that what he is now seeing differs from his earlier terms in Congress, back in the 1980s (Toby Eckert, SDUT).

"It's like night and day, the difference between then and now," said Rep. Dan Lungren, a Sacramento-area Republican and former state attorney general who returned to Congress this year after more than a decade away.

"I'd walk down the hall and there would be streams of people in front of every office, representing every community and every public entity and every other special interest in that district – and they were all coming in for earmarks," he said. "We sure didn't have that when I was here before."

The operators may be more shameless, closer to Sacramento practices than earlier DC, but the principle remains the same.

"It has exploded since Republicans took control," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. "It's shameless. . . . It's really out of control."

"Members are getting hooked on earmarks quickly. They are led to believe that that is the way you get re-elected. The leadership pretends that they're going to get earmarks under control. But they love them because once they get the members hooked, they can lead them around by the nose," Flake said.