Last week, House Democrats (and two Republicans) voted through a supplemental defense bill that included a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq and more than $20 billion in pork projects. (Fourteen Democrats voted against the measure, seven because it continued funding the war and seven because the measure was wrong.)

The entire process was despicable and I hope will come back to bite Democrats in the behind. If you oppose the war, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her caucus claim, then you cut off funding. Continuing funding but setting arbitrary deadlines and limits on what the commander-in-chief can do to win is wrong.

But perhaps the most despicable part was all of the pork. It included money for Jimmy Carter peanut farmers and spinach growers among others.

An editorial in Friday's Union-Tribune decrying the vote in advance made a connection that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere.

In 2004, a unanimous House ethics committee voted to rebuke then-Majority Leader DeLay for his tactics in attempting to persuade Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., to support a 2003 bill adding prescription-drug benefits to Medicare. [Tom] DeLay's offense, according to the official panel report: “DeLay offered to endorse Rep. Smith's son [to replace him after he retired] in exchange for Rep. Smith's vote in favor of the Medicare bill.”

If that merits a formal rebuke, trying to use $24 billion in taxpayer money to sway a vote on war policy deserves a prison term.

I couldn't agree more.