Here's a summary...

House GOP leaders have instituted a moratorium on earmarks -- pork barrel spending -- tucked into legislation and asked their Democrat colleagues to join them. The Democrat leadership refused. Minority leader John Boehner launched a website to fight for earmark reform in the House. Now the Democrats want it shut down.

From the NYT article: The White House says Congress earmarked nearly $17 billion for more than 11,700 projects in the current fiscal year. About 40 percent of the money was for items requested by Republicans.

The following chart shows the earmark spending of the three remaining presidential candidates in FY08. Some people say there's no difference between the parties or between the candidates.

I beg to differ. The two Democrats have out-porked the Republican by almost a half BILLION dollars. That's a big difference.