Earmarks have been a hot topic on the Hill of late, and a go-to target for debates on wasteful government spending. How do the major candidates for president stack up when it comes to these controversial spending allocations, the ethics around them, and what about the earmarking process should be changed? The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, takes a look.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle isn't pleased that the high cost of campaigning and resultant concentration of power among the small percentage of the population who can make significant campaign contributions. The paper urges Eliot Spitzer to continue in his efforts at a more transparent government, and to support Clean Elections public financing for state races.

Did Sen. McConnell send Sen. Ensign to do his dirty work? The Senate has been battling over S. 223, the bill that would require electronic filing of campaign finance reports by Senators (the House already does this). Turns out the efforts to obstruct the bill may have been coming from Sen. McConnell's office the whole time.

Interesting development: Kentucky state Sen. Damon Thayer (R) has introduced a bill to increase the frequency of campaign finance disclosure reports that candidates must submit in an effort to boost transparency of campaign finances. Incidentally, Thayer is the same Senator who worked to get rid of the public financing program for gubernatorial campaigns that Kentucky had.

Remember Senator Mitch McConnell's efforts to shield the Republican Senator who put an anonymous hold on S.223, a bill to require electronic disclosure of Senators' campaign finance reports, even though McConnell is on the record in support of transparency? Well, it's just gotten stranger.

The Baltimore Sun joins in in calling out Sen. Mitch McConnell and his fellow obstructors for standing in the way of a bill to require Senators to file campaign finance disclosure forms electronically. Electronic disclosure would be a fast, inexpensive way to give voters better access to information about who was giving how much to their Senators (and whether they were getting anything in return).