The public battle between Mitch McConnell (R) and Jim DeMint (R) over an across-the-board earmarks ban will come to a head next Tuesday when the Republican Conference is scheduled to vote on the proposed resolution. On McConnell's side are Republicans who favor maintaining the status quo, while the DeMint-led faction, which includes incoming Republicans who ran as tea party candidates, want to "shut down the earmark favor factory."

DeMint's supporters include Tom Coburn (R), John Ensign (R), Mike Enzi (R), John Cornyn (R), Richard Burr (R), Jeff Sessions (R), Senators-elect Pat Toomey (R), Marco Rubio (R), Rand Paul (R), Mike Lee (R), Ron Johnson (R) and Kelly Ayotte (R). And if any Republicans vote against it, they have been warned by a major tea party group to expect a primary challenge in 2012.

Now, keeping all that in mind -- the Republican Conference, all those "R's," the threats against Republicans -- get a load of this:

Today, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) pushed back hard against Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) proposal to ban earmarks in the Senate. In an interview on Fox News, Inhofe argued that: The problem is the public has been brainwashed into thinking — and a lot of these are the very liberal, uh, members of Congress — into thinking that earmarks are somehow all bad. Well, if you quit saying "earmark" and say "appropriations" then I'll buy it.

And if you keep telling a lie often enough ... well, in Inhofe's case, he's brainwashed himself.