In August of 2005, FBI agents searched Democratic Rep. William Jefferson’s home and discovered $90,000 of alleged bribe money in his freezer. The discovery catapulted the Democrats into an ongoing public debate over congressional ethics. They became the subject of criticisms previously reserved for Republicans during the infamous Abramoff and DeLay scandals.
Then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi fought back ardently, claiming that the Democratic Party should be the party of ethics. According to WaPo:
Many House Democrats were genuinely outraged by what they regarded as misrule by the GOP. But Pelosi and her top political adviser, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), also saw that the Republican "culture of corruption" could be a winning issue.
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During the Democratic landslide on Nov. 7, more voters told exit pollsters that corruption was "extremely important" to their vote, rather than terrorism, the economy or the war in Iraq.
In response, Pelosi vowed that the new Democratic-controlled Congress would be “the most ethical Congress ever.” Yet Jefferson’s continued presence in the new Congress after his re-election serves as a constant reminder to Democrats that they are not immune to unethical conduct.
But are there limits to Democratic promises of ethics reform? Are they merely rhetoric and campaign slogans? It’s beginning to like such limits do indeed exist.
Consider the issue of revolving-door rules. On Tuesday WaPo reported on the large number of corporate lobbyists who now hold staff positions for Democratic Congressmen. It may be true that rules governing these practices are not as stringent as the rules for former officeholders who later work as lobbyists, but what happened to the Democratic opposition to corporate influence during Republican control?
Congress has proposed creating an independent ethics commission, and these questions should be brought to the debate. The proposal has already faced delays while a bipartisan task force gets ready to submit recommendations. The Hill reports:
“We have talked about it and we’ve agreed that we would have this bipartisan task force look at whether there ought to be some outside ethics watchdog, and if so, what [it would look like],” Boehner said in an interview yesterday.
Hammill denied that assembling the bipartisan task force is a way to deflect criticism that Democrats are falling short on campaign promises to restore the ethics process in Congress by failing to immediately push an outside ethics commission and punt the issue to a later date. Outside Congressional watchdog groups have been pushing for the creation of an independent ethics group who will weigh the propriety of member activity, and Senate leaders said they would allow the issue to go through the regular committee process instead of fast-tracking it at the beginning of the session.
If members of Congress fail to act on ethics reform and end corruption, their next revolving door might lead to early retirement. Corporate influence in Congress knows no party lines, and the image of Jefferson still looms large in the American mind.
-- John Pruett
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