Ted Stevens is the culprit in putting a secret hold on the Coburn-Obama bill to shed light on federal spending.

The identity of the blogosphere's "secret senator" has been revealed.

CNN has confirmed that Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has placed a hold on a bill that would require the government to publish a database of federal spending online.

"He does have a hold on the bill," Stevens spokesperson Aaron Saunders told CNN. "At the time he placed the hold he notified Sen. [Tom] Coburn and his staff and identified several questions we had with the bill. Two weeks ago Sen. Coburn named Stevens as having a hold on the bill so we don't consider it a secret."

Since he's the granddaddy of porkbarrel spending, this is not a surprise. This, though, is a surprise, given the nature of the Internet.

Coburn's office confirmed that Coburn had revealed Steven's hold during a town hall meeting in Oklahoma two weeks ago.

Two weeks? That's a long time for something to be put into the public domain but not made widely known via the Internet. Presumably, the bill will go to a vote soon now that Stevens's role is known. Here's is lame excuse, for the record.

"Sen. Stevens has a series of concerns and questions about the bill. He wants a cost benefit analysis to make sure it doesn't create an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and not meet its purpose," [Stevens spokesperson Aaron] Saunders said.

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