One of the great numbers from the 1978 Broadway musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas and the movie based on it was "Texas Has a Whorehouse In It," a supposed expose by a less-than-reputable newscaster about how he was absolutely shocked to discover a brothel that everyone knew knew was there.

f you saw the movie you'll almost certainly remember Dom DeLuise in this big production number with a chorus backing him up. It was outrageous, and outrageously funny.

(Note: The more I think about it now, the more this number may have been the prototype for some of the "news" channels and radio talk shows that are so prevalent today.)

Here's the opening lines from the song:

(Solo) Texas has a whorehouse in it.
(Chorus) lord have mercy on our souls.

Why bring this up now? Because as he vetoed the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriation this week, President Bush sounded like Dom DeLuise as he announced that he was shocked to discover that he bill "has too many earmarks."

This is the same President Bush who had no problems signing every appropriation during his first six years in office even though they also had earmarks. This is also the same President Bush who signed bills in the past with more earmarks than this one.

In vetoing the bill, Bush said that Congress "... did not reach the goal of cutting the cost and number by at least half." In other words, Congress failed to cut the number oif earmarks in half from what he had previously approved.

David Sarasohn of Newhouse News Service had a great column on this on Wednesday.

Lord have mercy on our souls.