Weren’t Democrats supposed to bring honesty, ethics and openness to Congress? That was Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s promise upon taking control. But after a little more than six months on the job, the new majority is going back on its word. Transparency on earmarks appears to be just a farce.

In each house of Congress, Democrats are showing signs of returning to business as usual. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid has been holding up the ethics reform package because he wants to strip it of a earmark transparency provision that he and 97 other senators voted for in January.

Despite facing pressure from his own leadership, conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R.-S.C.) won’t relent, insisting the language be preserved. It’s causing all sorts of headaches for Reid, who is now facing criticism from liberal advocacy groups that don’t like the fact he refuses to release the text of the legislation.

The dirty little secret on Capitol Hill is that the text of the legislation was written months ago by a handful of people in a smoke-filled room. That’s right. A bill that’s supposed to bring ethics reform to Congress is itself antithetical to transparency.

Trouble is that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) might just go along with it. According to Roll Call ($), conservatives fear that the consequences of Republican capitulation could be devastating. “For our leadership to vote against earmark reform and be AWOL on this debate is no way to win back the majority,” one conservative staffer told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, another Democrat in the House, Appropriations Chairman David Obey, is complicating life for anyone who wants to see the earmarks in the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill. Congressional Quarterly reported yesterday that the bill “contained a list of earmarks and their sponsors — but not dollar amounts.” It took some intensive work by an intrepid CQ reporter to discover 420 lawmakers made out with $282.1 million in pork-barrel projects.

Obey may have provided the information required under House rules, but he certainly didn’t do so in a form that was usable. Such disregard for transparency ultimately tarnishes Pelosi’s image. It’s her House. She should make every attempt to uphold her commitment to honesty, ethics and openness.