Separate Ethics Committee?

You raise an interesting point about an ethics committee that's separate from Congress. But the reality is that Congress would not allow it to be created -- in part because they believe only members of Congress can sit in judgment of each other's ethical lapses.

(Given Congress's track record on ethics -- especially the House's track record since the "truce" the parties reached nearly 10 years ago -- that isn't terribly encouraging.)

Rep. Nancy Pelosi has said that if the Democrats retake the House and she becomes Speaker, she will adopt a number of rules to make the relationship between lobbyists and legislators less cozy. Would this have any real effect? I don't know, but it would certainly be a start.

What's less certain is whether the House would pass new lobbying reforms to create an independent ethics division to investigate allegations of wrongdoing. Other reforms that are mentioned are cutbacks on privately-funded travel, the creation of a searchable electronic database so you can see what members are getting, and so on.  

I'll be putting up a post soon that outlines some ethics proposals I heard yesterday at a briefing at the Brookings Institution.