| North County Times August 5, 2007 |
Contact: Kurt Bardella (202) 225-0508 |
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Duke's dirt gets Congress off its duff
North County Times Editorial Staff |
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| By: North County Times Opinion staff Our view: Ethics reform shows effects of Cunningham's corruption still being felt, for the better Do federal penitentiaries get C-SPAN? We confess, we don't know. But we like to think Randy "Duke" Cunningham was watching from behind bars as Congress last week passed the most far-reaching ethics reform legislation since the Watergate era. After all, Cunningham's corruption helped force Congress to begin addressing some of Washington's most questionable practices. Ethics reform may be the best part of Cunningham's legacy. What started with reports of a questionable real estate deal involving our former congressman and a defense contractor erupted into one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history. Ongoing investigations should continue to shed light on just how low they could, can and did go. With Thursday's Senate approval of the ethics and lobbying reform legislation, Democrats in Congress fulfilled their November 2006 campaign pledge to address the "culture of corruption" that they said festered in the Republican-dominated Congress of the previous four years. Actually, they pledged to "end" that corruption, but you've got to crawl before you can walk, right? Among other things, the bill requires legislators to disclose their sponsorship of earmarks before voting occurs. Earmarks are the quiet requests that lawmakers insert into spending bills to fund their pet projects, or "pork," and to reward their cronies and campaign contributors without much scrutiny. The bill closes a key loophole for campaign donations, mandating that lobbyists disclose when they donate $15,000 or more to a member of Congress in a six-month period by "bundling" gifts from numerous givers. It also requires lobbyists to periodically report their activities on the Internet. It also cuts retirement benefits to legislators convicted of bribery, a reform we wish could be applied retroactively to Cunningham. At least as importantly, the bill goes beyond the usual sources of public ire, such as earmarking, and targets the glad-handing and back-scratching that are at the heart of Washington's culture of cronyism. For instance, the bill forbids senators and their staffs from accepting gifts from lobbyists (the House adopted a gift ban earlier this year) or getting free trips on corporate planes. It also ends the revolving door that allows former members of Congress to leave office and automatically get a high-paying job to lobby their former colleagues; senators will have a two-year "cooling off" period, House members one. House members approved the bill Tuesday by a vote of 411 to 8. We were glad to see North County's Republican delegation ---- Brian Bilbray of the 50th District, Darrell Issa of the 49th District and Duncan Hunter of the 54th District ---- voting with the majority. Bilbray especially owes his constituents a special responsibility to repair the district's sullied reputation, and such concern doesn't hurt Hunter and Issa, either. Last week's overwhelming votes aren't the last word in ethics reform; at the least, President Bush might sign the bill into law. So long as power, money and ego mix, the possibility for corruption will exist. But if nothing else, it's an acknowledgment by our political leaders that the old way of doing business in Washington must change. Thanks, Duke. (####) |
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