in accoufact, former virginia republican tom davis was on this program on monday and offered his defense of earmarks. here's what he had to say. >> earmarks are project desing nations and it's an article 1 house of representative and if you look at the 150 years of the republic and almost every project that went through was earmarked and there was an earmark and congress would decide and it's the house of representatives and earmarks do two other things. they allow members to personalize their districts to show that there's a reason to keep them around because they can bring back certain r jects if they have to go through the bureaucratic model otherwise and third, it makes the default vote yes. and it makes it easier to pass it, and it was kind of the glue that held legislation together because they both have something. and i'll give you an example. in my district, and my presidential candidate never carried my district and the district was designed to be more or less and the democratic district and i was mr. woodrow wilson bridge, and the dallas quarter and he got 3,000 acres of land g