Ethics? A Shell Game Coming.

Ethics? A Shell Game Coming.Vote Out Incumbents Democracy (VOID), David Remmer: ...Exit polls from Nov. 7's elections revealed that voters ranked ethics and corruption in government as their greatest area of concern beating out the war in Iraq by 1 percentage point at 40%. Only 39% of respondents indicated the Iraq War was their primary concern. Logically, the voters are right to put ethics and corruption as their top concern, because it affects all other legislation and policy making government more expensive, more inefficient, and less able to address the nation's and the people's needs. ...

Democrats Split on How Far to Go With Ethics Law By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, New York Times, WASHINGTON — After railing for months against Congressional corruption under Republican rule, Democrats on Capitol Hill are divided on how far their proposed ethics overhaul should go.
Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate, mindful that voters in the midterm election cited corruption as a major concern, say they are moving quickly to finalize a package of changes for consideration as soon as the new Congress convenes in January. ...The Republicans who took over the House in 1994 adopted some of the same policies the Democrats now propose, including a ban on gifts and travel, only to relax the rules later. In 2002, Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, pushed through a bipartisan law to restrict campaign donations and spending. The advocates of that bill are now pushing to close loopholes around so-called 527 groups....