The senator who put a hold on the bill to reveal federal spending has been revealed at last. It is....oh crap!

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 online a database of federal spending.

"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."

Senate tradition allows any senator to keep a piece of legislation from reaching the Senate floor by placing a hold on the bill.

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

The bill has become a cause célèbre for both liberal and conservative bloggers as they tried to uncover the "secret senator" who had blocked passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590). The bill was introduced earlier this year by Sens. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Coburn, R-Oklahoma.

The conservative-leaning, anti-government waste site Porkbusters urged readers to call their senators and ask them to go on the record denying that they placed the hold. TPMuckraker, under the banner "blogosphere unites in pursuit of masked senator" also got in on the act, posting updates from readers around the country.

Well of course it is my very own Senator that would be putting the brakes on a bill that would reveal who spent what, and how much. He has much to keep hidden.

I am so embarrassed. But not at all surprised.