(AP) House Republicans are on retreat on Maryland's peaceful Eastern Shore, seeking what newly elected Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, describes as "renewal and rebuilding" after a tough stretch in the Capitol.

Yet like a lot of vacationers, they've brought their problems with them.

Some are the product of the calendar, others more of their own making.

A controversy over earmarks _ the congressional name for funding pet projects _ is particularly intense. Especially since one GOP-led committee compiled a secret tally sheet showing earmark requests made by Republicans calling for reform.

"Earmarks have become the currency of corruption," Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., recently wrote Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "We can't allow this to continue."

High on the list of challenges for the GOP is the annual drafting of a budget. President Bush's appearance on Friday's program was a reminder that he's calling for $70 billion in savings over five years from benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and payments to farmers.

Then there's the shadow of scandal, which in recent months has pushed Texas Rep. Tom DeLay from the leadership, Ohio Rep. Bob Ney from his committee chairmanship and California Rep. Randy Cunningham from Congress after a confession of bribe-taking. All are Republicans.

New York Rep. Tom Reynolds, the chairman of the GOP campaign committee, noted at a news conference that "2006 is also an election year."

A few hours later he provided a political briefing for the rank and file, a presentation that participants said later had lampooned Democratic leaders as Darth Vader and other "Star Wars" characters.

Internal divisions also have surfaced at a time Republicans _ their poll numbers sagging _ try to reclaim the mantle of reform that helped them win the majority more than a decade ago.

Fiscal conservatives are particularly determined to cut back on earmarks.

The practice, an old one, has mushroomed in recent years under Republican sponsorship, and the legislation backed by Flake and numerous other lawmakers is designed to trim it.

The measure would preserve the existence of earmarks, but for the first time allow critics to challenge them one by one on the House floor.

Flake, who issues a stream of news releases accusing his fellow lawmakers of wasteful spending, says the purpose is transparency in government. The theory is that forcing lawmakers to defend projects will expose them to ridicule and, eventually, the practice will ebb.

So far, the legislation has sparked an intense internal struggle pitting Republican against Republican.

The committee that controls the pursestrings compiled a list of earmarks requested last year by GOP lawmakers who favor Flake's bill.

The total was 717 requested earmarks, although none for Flake, for more than $4.5 billion.

The response was sharp.

"I am shocked that the Republican staff of a Republican-led committee in a Republican-majority Congress would do opposition research on a fellow Republican," first-term Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia wrote in a letter to fellow GOP lawmakers. "I do not see any other purpose behind the preparation of this report other than for it to be leaked to the press."

The Associated Press obtained copies of both the Appropriations Committee tally and the letter.

By committee count, Westmoreland requested 59 earmarks last year, for a total of $536 million. His office declined to release the entire list of projects he requested.

Spokesman Brian Robinson said that until the current system is changed, "we have to play by the rules that are in place _ that's only fair to our constituents. Members don't release their request lists. We've released more than most would simply by saying that we sent the committee only 43 percent of the requests that came to our office."

Flake, in an interview, likened the tally sheet to a type of blackmail on the part of members of the House Appropriations Committee. Rank and file lawmakers are required to submit their requests in writing, thus creating a paper trail, he said. No such requirement is imposed on senior lawmakers, he added, including subcommittee chairmen with the power to insert or omit individual projects from the bills they draft.

"It is no coincidence that the growth of earmarks has paralleled the monstrous increase in overall federal spending," he wrote recently in The New York Times.

Or that the subject is on the agenda for the Republican retreat.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE _ David Espo is chief congressional correspondent for The Associated Press.