Given the complete and utterly appalling failure of the Congressional ethics committees to do anything to police members in the recent tidal wave of Congressional corruption, it is great to see the House finally pass a measure creating an independent ethis panel. Through all the blatant corruption of the past few years- Abramoff, DeLay, Cunningham, Jefferson, Ney, Doolittle, Renzi, Foley, Craig, Vitter, Sherwood, Gibbons, Lewis, Weldon, Frist, Burns, Sweeney, and God knows who else I'm forgetting or that we don't know about yet- the ethics committees have done virtually nothing. And members of both parties have liked it that way.
A friend of mine who consults for a Congresswoman, whom I can't name or my friend will get in trouble, told this consultant to back off on helping me push ethics reform in the 2006 election because "she liked going on junkets." Pelosi came under enormous pressure to back off on pushing this bill, and had to keep the voting machines open to round up the votes. And members of Congress were blatant in their attacks on it: Congressman Tiahrt said, "If you have a single ounce of self-preservation, you'll vote no."
Getting this done yesterday was a good thing. Pelosi and the groups that kept pushing on this in the face of really intense opposition deserve a round of applause.
STATE BLOGS
