The Sunlight Foundation’s Congressional Family project hit the front page of Digg last night, opening up the work of one smart mob to the critique of another.

I’m part of the Digg community (and in full disclosure, the person who submitted the article.) I find Digg’s social network to be great at highlighting important news of the day, but its ability to contribute to those stories is limited to comment threads, which are often shouting matches.

But every once in a while, a gem. Larian LeQuella says there’s a difference between the data arising from Sunlight’s project and the story we’re actually interested in:

“While it may not be strictly illegal, I would hope that they are actually EARNING that pay! THAT is where the true story should be investigated. Some of those wives are lawyers and whatnot, so they may have a legitimate reason to work on the campaign trail. The thing that sticks in people’s craw is that it’s nepotism to put your own wife on the payroll.

So, while the amateur journalists are digging up these out of context payments, we need to really ask, “Did these spouses earn that money?”

Yes. That is a further refinement of what we want to know. Of course, they could earn it and it would still be sticking in some craws that campaign contributions can go right to a Member’s household income.