Both John Dickerson (here, in Slate) and Maureen Dowd (here, in the NYT) have pieces that are highly critical of Obama's willingness to bend to Congress and allow so many earmarks (almost 9,000) into the spending bill.
Dickerson's sharp analogy to a dieting strategy:
Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, [when asked about the spending, said] "This is last year's business ... we want to just move on."
Obama can't veto the bill, say aides, because it's already gone through congressional committees and it would just be too hard to undo that work. Imagine if your diet worked this way: Before you start on your 28-day purge, you may consume the remaining food in your pantry.
