Of course, this isn't the first time the states have led and Washington has trailed.  The centerpiece of Tennessee's ethics reform bill is a newly-created independent ethics commission, and many other states have adopted this same commonsense means of enforcing ethics rules.  Meanwhile, Congress pretends that it can police itself simply because its ethics committees are made up of legislators from both sides of the aisle - but that just means that when it does nothing, it does so in a bipartisan way.  (Kind of like the rest of Congress, actually, which also does nothing in a bipartisan way.)

As Common Cause Tennessee chair Dick Williams points out, this bill is good but still doesn't go far enough.  During the coming legislative session, CC/TN and allies will be pushing for a Voter-Owned Elections law to establish full public financing of campaigns.  The Tennessee Senate voted to include it as part of the ethics reform package, but the House declined and it was left out of the conference bill.

This is another area where the states have led the way.  Arizona, Maine, and Connecticut have instituted public financing for all statewide and legislative races, and Portland (OR) was followed closely by Albuquerque as the first cities to establish it.  Maryland, California, and other states could well pass it this year.  But folks inside the beltway are asleep at the switch.  They respond to constant scandals by fiddling around the edges of reform, if they even get that far.

Wake up, Congress: your friends in the states know how put the fires out.