The House Republican majority made a big show last week of pursuing its campaign promise to slash the federal budget. Far less obvious was the discreet dinner break for campaign fund-raising taken by 13 freshmen Republicans on the Armed Services Committee. The yearling defense appropriators went to solicit re-election help from the defense industry.

It’s no wonder the freshmen call themselves the “Lucky 13” for having secured a politically priceless committee perch as defense budget gatekeepers.

The fund-raiser let the newcomers learn the real ropes of Washington: the debating floor is for talk of empowering constituents while nearby restaurants are where lawmakers cozy up to the power of deep-pocketed special interests looking for the inside track on legislative business. Thus it goes “inside the beltway,” a lucrative place that candidates perpetually run against then rely on to bolster their incumbency.

There is nothing illegal or partisan about this hypocrisy. The late John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, was a Democratic legend at milking defense donors for political money while earmarking and protecting even their most bloated interests in runaway Pentagon budgets.