Noble pronouncements, every one of them. We all would like more transparency and less back room finagling, but when you are ramming partisan legislation down the throats of a people who are dead set against such legislation, drastic action (and empty promises) are the result.

We all remember those promises about making bills easier to understand, putting them on the web 72 hours before a vote, and allowing time for the Congress to actually read what they were voting on. But something this unsavory would not pass the smell test, so shenanigans are afoot.

But even CSPAN had now weighed in, chastising those in power for their duplicity.

The head of C-SPAN has implored Congress to open up the last leg of health care reform negotiations to the public, as top Democrats lay plans to hash out the final product among themselves.

C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb wrote to leaders in the House and Senate Dec. 30 urging them to open “all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings,” to televised coverage on his network.

Pleas falling on deaf ears, apparently.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says he hasn’t heard about the C-SPAN letter requesting that final health care negotiations be televised — which, of course, harked back to President Obama’s [in]famous pronouncement that all talks should be televised on C-SPAN.

“I haven’t seen that letter,” Gibbs said.

Getting backing for this universal healthcare heist has not been easy, but deals have been struck (in secret, of course).

The New York Times reports that the White House has cut a behind-the-scenes deal with drug industry lobbyists to prevent Congress from squeezing more than $80 billion in cost savings from Big Pharma. Where were the television cameras when White House aides were working out this agreement with the lobbyists?

Getting all this out in the open is going to be difficult, congressional reach arounds (like what Ben Nelson got) are hardly PG rated.