House Minority Whip Roy Blunt With Omnibus, originally uploaded by Rob Bluey.

Two weeks ago Sen. Jim DeMint outlined the end-game strategy Republicans in Congress should use when confronting 11 of the 12 unfinished spending bills and troop funding legislation. DeMint’s idea wasn’t revolutionary, but for anyone who cares about limiting the growth of government, it made perfect sense: forget the omnibus and pass a continuing resolution at this year’s spending levels.

DeMint’s idea would give conservatives a cause to rally around as Democrats negotiated the details of a mammoth omnibus bill. Unfortunately, the senator’s own leadership decided it would rather bask in a few day’s worth of bad headlines for Democrats instead of standing strong on principle. Republicans may be gloating today, but they should be ashamed if they support this atrocious omnibus.

It’s hard to understand why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was so shortsighted. In exchange for giving up his coveted earmarks, McConnell could have held the growth of government to 2% next year. Instead, it will increase between 4% to 5% under the omnibus. Even House Minority Leader Roy Blunt admitted today during a lunch with conservative bloggers that a continuing resolution would have been catastrophic for the Democrats in comparison to the omnibus.

During the same briefing with bloggers, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) seemed downright frustrated by his leadership’s willingness to sign off on a bad bill. Short of keeping senators and staffs in the Capitol through Christmas, Coburn admitted there was little that could be done to stop the legislation.

As the Senate moves closer to voting on the half-trillion-dollar package, conservatives are making a final plea to slow down the process. The American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, Americans for Prosperity, Citizens Against Government Waste and Club for Growth have all voiced opposition to the omnibus. Senators like Coburn and DeMint will need all the support they can get with McConnell and other GOP leaders pressuring them to back off this fight.

For as frustrating as it is to watch McConnell roll over, what’s even more disappointing is that President Bush is willing to sign a bill (assuming troop funding for Iraq is added) that violates so many of the principles he’s been fighting for all year. The bill is nearly $20 billion more than Bush’s top-line number when ‚Äúemergencies‚Äù are factored in and comes nowhere close to slashing pork projects in half.

Just last week Bush signaled his willingness to accept a continuing resolution, as DeMint had suggested. But as the negative headlines continued to pop up over the weekend and into yesterday, even the White House toned down its rhetoric, claiming, for example, the explosion of earmarks in the bill wouldn’t trigger a veto.

With a vote taking place in a few hours, there’s little that can be done in the short term other than educating members of Congress about the deeply flawed provisions in the legislation. Unfortunately, it might take a Christmas miracle to open their eyes to this flawed bill.