Posted November 9, 2006 by Meredith McGehee

Newsflash: Voters Fed Up With Congressional Corruption

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Tuesday’s Election Day results showed that American voters reached a breaking point in their tolerance of congressional corruption.  The scandals, investigations, indictments, resignations and plea agreements just kept coming in a steady stream, and congressional approval ratings continued to sink.  But the Republican leadership chose to continue ignoring the warning signs.  The scandals surrounding super lobbyist Jack Abramoff exposed to public view the way business is too often conducted on Capitol Hill.  The public was outraged at the pay-to-play system.  Promises that politicians on Capitol Hill made at the press conferences earlier this year were gradually scaled back to the toothless bills that were passed by the House and the Senate (even those bills never made it out of conference committee).

Twelve years after seizing control of the House in the wake of numerous Democratic corruption scandals, the Republican majority in Congress has now met the same fate. 

As a result, the new Congress will have a very different look.  Rampant corruption — especially the pay-to-play system in Washington — undermined Americans’ faith in their elected officials and once again inspired a swift and decisive voter backlash.  As poll after poll showed during 2006, including Tuesday’s exit polls, American voters do indeed care about and are disgusted by the corruption of officials in Congress, much to the surprise and consternation of many Washington insiders who try and try again to belittle this concern as the hobby horse of good government “goo-goos.”

The House Democratic leadership has put forth a good starting point for reform, and House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi deserves credit for making ethics and lobby reform a top priority for the 110th Congress.  We will stand firmly behind an effort toward real and realistic reform.

We also understand that any meaningful reform will face resistance from elements in both parties.  At the core of any effective effort to deal with the “culture of corruption” in Congress is the establishment of a more independent enforcement entity.  Regardless of the party in power, Congress has repeatedly shown itself incapable of providing the enforcement necessary to maintain the integrity of the institution and its public credibility.  We believe the Office of Public Integrity offered by Representatives Christopher Shays and Marty Meehan offers a viable alternative and urge Speaker-designate Pelosi to include an independent enforcement entity in proposed rule changes.  We also urge the Speaker-designate and Senator Reid, should he become Majority Leader, to publicly commit to sending to the President a lobby disclosure reform bill that passes the smell test by the end of the first 100 days of the 110th Congress.

The new leadership must move quickly before the current momentum for reform in Congress ebbs.  Changing the “culture of corruption” in Washington, including altering the pay-to-play campaign finance system, will face stiff resistance because so many have learned to exploit the status quo to their own benefit. 

As the current Congress has learned, simply putting a coat of paint over the rotting wood underneath does not make a house stronger.  Members of both parties of the 110th Congress must take this mandate for lobbying and ethics reform and run with it.  The American public has made clear they expect such reforms and will hold politicians accountable for corruption and abuses.  A Congress that is more open, honest and ethical means a stronger democracy and a stronger America.