ETHICS

Foxes Propose Henhouse Reform For 10 years, right-wing leaders in Congress have overseen the K Street Project -- a partisan, pay-to-play system that provides special interests with legislative favors in return for campaign cash. Yesterday, they tried to reinvent themselves as reformers. As Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) noted, it's like "asking John Gotti to clean up organized crime." The results are what you'd expect: Instead of getting at the heart of the problem, the reforms proposed yesterday nibble around the edges. While there was a lot of talk about reform, what was proposed was a recipe for business as usual on Capitol Hill.

WHERE'S THE BEEF? As Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) correctly noted yesterday, unethical behavior "has been driven by [lobbyists'] ability to contact, perhaps even in the middle of the night, a member of the Appropriations Committee, who then writes in a line item which no one sees or knows about sometimes days or even weeks after the bill is passed. That is a process that lends itself to corruption. It is a process that has, as we have seen over time, increased yearly." The reforms proposed yesterday did little to change the House rules that have allowed lobbyists to control the legislative process. Rep. Charlie Bass (R-NH) yesterday morning indicated the type of substantive legislative reforms that would be necessary to make an impact: "We need to make sure that all bills that are up for a vote are posted on Thomas [http://thomas.loc.gov], which is the Library of Congress website, for at least 72 hours, and limit the amount of time that the voting stations are open in the House to say 30 minutes without bipartisan approval. That's a start. Unfortunately, for our leaders though that reduces the power that they have and the discipline that they can exert on members." And because it would have reduced their influence and power, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and his newly "handpicked" point-man on ethics, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA), were silent on instituting these changes.

A GLARING LOOPHOLE: While Hastert claimed yesterday that "to regain the trust of the American people in this institution we must go further than prosecuting the bad actors," his proposals revealed a glaring loophole. "According to lobbyists and ethics experts, even if Hastert's proposal is enacted, members of Congress and their staffs could still travel the world on an interest group's expense and eat steak on a lobbyist's account at the priciest restaurants in Washington. The only requirement would be that whenever a lobbyist pays the bill, he or she must also hand the lawmaker a campaign contribution. Then the transaction would be perfectly okay."

EARMARKS REMAIN A THORNY ISSUE: One likely area of disagreement between members of the House and Senate will be over "earmarking," the practice of "slipping spending items into appropriations bills without much congressional scrutiny and often at the request of lobbyists." People like Abramoff have learned to use this system effectively, to the tune of $47 billion in 15,000 earmarks last year alone. Sen. McCain, an outspoken opponent of the practice, said yesterday, "Earmarks must be addressed to cure the illness of the way we do business in the nation's capital." Hastert, on the other hand, "partially defended the practice." "That's what members do ... they represent their districts," he said.

POLICY IDEAS HAVE TAKEN A BACKSEAT: Lost in the pay-to-play system is any concern for good governance. The Wall Street Journal recently editorialized, the real problem "isn't about lobbyists so much as it is the atrophying of its principles. As their years in power have stretched on, House Republicans have become more passionate about retaining power than in using that power to change or limit the federal government. Gathering votes for serious policy is difficult and tends to divide a majority. Re-election unites them, however, so the leadership has gradually settled for raising money on K Street and satisfying Beltway interest groups to sustain their incumbency. This strategy has maintained a narrow majority, but at the cost of doing anything substantial. ... Ideas are an afterthought, when they aren't an inconvenience."

ETHICS PANEL HAS FAILED TO INVESTIGATE: "With the charges surrounding former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with Congress, you might expect the House Ethics Committee to be busy with investigations. You'd be wrong." The failure of the ethics committees to investigate wrongdoing lends little credibility to the idea that new reforms will be implemented and enforced.

LAWMAKERS WILLING TO BE BOUGHT: As former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has said, "There can't be a lobbying scandal if there aren't members of Congress willing to be bought." The problem with the new reform proposals, as National Review's Rich Lowry points out, is that the congressional leaders have "come under the corruptive spell of lobbyists. In every transaction, ... there has to be a willing buyer and seller." Conservative lawmakers have been willing buyers of what lobbyists were selling.

FACE OF REFORM COMES FROM 'BANANA REPUBLIC' HOUSE: "We need to reform the rules so that it is clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what is ethically acceptable," Speaker Hastert said at the unveiling of his lobbying reform package. He and Rep. Drier will be crafting legislation "including a ban on privately funded travel for members" and "tight curbs on meals and other gifts from lobbyists." These two are hardly the right people for the job. Hastert has "collected more than $100,000 in donations from Abramoff’s firm and tribal clients between 2001 and 2004," and had to pledge about $70,000 of this to charity. Hastert also wrote a letter on behalf of Abramoff's tribal clients, the Coushattas, to Interior Secretary Gale Norton "urging her to reject the Jena tribe of Choctaw Indians’ request for a new casino," though he was part of a large group of signatories who did "not normally weigh in on Indian issues." As for Dreier, who serves as House Rules Committee Chairman, the problems affecting Congress have much to do with how he has allowed the leadership to run roughshod over House procedures. While Dreier is urging fellow members "to make sure the structure is working," votes have been kept open indefinitely under his watch. (The House took 50 minutes to vote for the "Gasoline for America's Security Act," an hour for the CAFTA vote, and nearly three hours for the Medicare prescription drug bill vote.) All this led Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) to ask, "Is this the House of a Banana Republic?"

SANTORUM RECASTS HIMSELF AS K STREET REFORMER: On the Senate side, Rick Santorum (R-PA) joined John McCain at a press conference yesterday in announcing they would "craft legislation requiring more disclosure and transparency into the activities of Washington lobbyists." The new role is a strange one for Santorum, who has "doffed his K Street Point Man hat and donned another, that of K Street reformer." In his previous role, Santorum ran weekly meetings at which "the lobbyists present pass around a list of the jobs available and discuss whom to support." Santorum made sure firms chose people "whose reliability has been demonstrated." Despite his past, Santorum claimed yesterday that the K Street Project "has not been about putting pressure on people to hire individuals." "We never did that," he added. "We don’t do that and we wouldn't do that." In addition, Santorum claims to have never met Jack Abramoff, despite having once invited him to a meeting of "a virtual Who's Who" of lobbyists to discuss job openings.

TRUE REFORM NOT LIKELY FROM NEW HOUSE LEADERSHIP: The top candidates to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader have been falling over themselves trying to be the reform candidate. Beyond the limited proposals suggested by Hastert and Dreier, they have even said they would get to the source of the corruption and put an end to the "K Street Project." "If I am elected majority leader, there will no longer be a 'K Street project,' or anything else like it," says candidate Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). Soon after, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MI) "followed suit, with aides saying he agrees with Mr. Boehner's declaration." Both will need to do a lot of work to extricate themselves from the web of lobbyists they themselves helped to create. Blunt has "built a political machine of his own that extends from Missouri deep into Washington's K Street lobbying community," and he has allowed "Washington business and trade association lobbyists to help negotiate deals with individual House members to produce majorities on important issues." Boehner also "has strong connections to lobbyists: He met weekly with leading lobbyists to enlist their support and discuss strategy" during the 1990s. Also during that time, "Boehner handed out campaign checks from the tobacco industry to members on the House floor at a time when lawmakers were considering eliminating a tobacco subsidy." Even Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), the third candidate in the race who is "trying to position himself as the reform candidate," has dirty hands. Shadegg had to return $6,900 in campaign contributions from Abramoff sources, and Shadegg was one of two dozen Representatives who signed a Feb. 27, 2002 letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton on behalf of an Abramoff client.