There may be a revolution brewing among House Republicans.

For several years outside groups such as Porkbusters, the Club for Growth, the National Taxpayers' Union and others have lobbied for a real crackdown on pork-barrel earmarks. When Representative Roger Wicker was recently appointed to the Senate to replace Trent Lott, that fight suddenly became more prominent. That's because Wicker left behind a seat on the House Appropriations Committee, and the House's fiercest opponent of earmarks has petitioned for the seat. Under normal circumstances, Flake wouldn't have a chance. The Appropriations Commttee is the quintessential 'Old Boys Club,' and an old Washington saying tells us that there are three parties in Congress: Republicans, Democrats, and appropriators.

The life of the appropriator is pretty simple: secure funds for your projects, look out for your friends on and off the committee, and raise campaign cash based on your position of influence. You'd no more invite Jeff Flake to join the club than you'd invite a monk to the Kennedy compound. But there are some indications that Republican Leader John Boehner may be ready to break with tradition:

Yesterday, House Minority Leader John Boehner told his House Republican colleagues that they were destined to remain in the political wilderness if they couldn't kick their spending habits. Today, he took that debate one step further, announcing that the Steering Committee will not make an appointment to the vacant Appropriations Committee seat until after the House Republican retreat, where the GOP Leader has urged that a conference-wide discussion take place on earmarks.

Boehner is also expected to follow up later today at an RNC briefing, where he is expected to say, "We need to get serious about eliminating wasteful spending. Earmarks are a symptom of a much larger problem in Washington with runaway spending. We need to bring an end to wasteful earmarks, and we need to do it now." Boehner is expected to add, "The Democratic candidates all talk as if America has failed -- that if only we'd raise taxes, put our faith in government bureaucracies, and withdraw from the world stage, we'd be better off. Well I don't buy it. And the more Americans hear that message, the more I think they'll reject it."

This doesn't mean that Flake is headed to the Appropriations Committee. But it would take a tone-deaf politician to raise the hopes of his base, only to crush them later on. Ed Morrissey recently identified this as a 'brilliant opportunity' for House Republicans. He's right. But there's another simple truth at play here: you can't beat something with nothing. For House Republicans to convince voters to toss out the current leadership, they have to offer something better. Setting a monk to police the Kennedys may be part of the solution.