When temptation raises its head politicians, like most folks, topple off their pedestals.

Back when the Democrats ruled the roost in Raleigh the Republicans reviled them for their wicked ways like pork barrel spending and wasteful earmarks.

Now the Republicans rule the roost and, according to the newspapers, temptation’s struck again, tying them in a knot.

As Republican Leaders were packing their bags to leave town at the end of the session, silently, in the dead of night, a dark hand moved in a backroom, slipping a dozen old-fashioned earmarks – for legislators’ districts – into the state budget.

Two went to towns in House Speaker Tim Moore’s district.

One to Republican Leader Mike Hager’s district.

Another to the district of the powerful leader of the House Rules Committee.

And, over on the Senate, Phil Berger’s trusty ally Trudy Wade topped them all.

Senator Wade was clever; she never mentioned where the money was going – instead she wrote an earmark that gave a million dollars to “a city with a population between 105,000 and 110,000 located in a county that changed its state poverty ranking last year.”

No one knew which city. But only one fit the bill. And it was in Wade’s district.

The Senate Bull Mooses have boasted for years how they’ve cleaned-up politics and banished the bad old days of pay to play but now temptation’s bitten them – just like it bit the Democrats.