Kudos to USA Today for yesterday's editorial laying out in simple terms the lack of real committment to reform from this Congress. They count them off - Cunningham, Abramoff, Jefferson, Ney...and who knows how many others brewing?
Congress' answer to this ethics catastrophe has been a pair of competing measures in the House and Senate, which fall far short of what was promised in January but allow incumbents campaigning for re-election to claim they "voted for lobbying reform."
Don't believe it.
What they're selling, the American public better not buy. There's no ban on the privately-funded travel that got Abramoff, DeLay and Ney in trouble, and other "reforms" are off the weakest possible sort.
Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., named by House Speaker Dennis Hastert last January to oversee reform, blames Democrats for its failure. Certainly, House Democrats have not been much help, and the sleaze has been bipartisan. But Republicans hold majorities in the House and Senate. If reform was a priority, it would happen. Instead, Hastert has not even gotten around to naming lawmakers to a House-Senate committee needed to reconcile the two reform bills.
New laws and rules won't stop people such as Cunningham, who did what crooks do: They steal. They're also a small minority.
The real scandal in Washington is what's permissible, the gift-giving and favor-trading between lobbyists and lawmakers that's standard operating procedure. If lawmakers haven't learned that taking gifts, meals and lavish trips from people seeking favors looks an awful lot like bribery, then maybe the voters will teach them come Nov. 7.
Well-stated, and hopefully well-heeded.
