Editorial: Politicians - Tune up your ethical radar

Saturday, Oct. 11, 1997 | 7:03 a.m.

But 69 percent are united in their belief that Congress doesn't deserve a pay raise, according to an Associated Press poll.

Even so, federal legislators in recent weeks voted themselves a $3,073 "cost-of-living adjustment," bringing their annual salaries to $136,673. (All four members of Nevada's delegation voted against it.)

You can argue forever whether congressmen deserve more money, but the pay raise issue, and several like it, demonstrate that politicians and the public often don't share the same sense of right and wrong.

Many elected officials have no problem with traveling a lot while in office, or boosting their salaries, or, closer to home, trying to strike business deals with casino companies they regulate.

After all, those things are legal -- in the strictest sense.

The difference between what is legal and what is morally right, however, can be like the difference between Prince and Prince William. One can be gaudy, the other genuine.

There's also a wide gap sometimes between what reporters and politicians consider to be news.

The simple fact is that reporters always will bash politicians for traveling too much, or for padding their salaries, or for using their office to arrange business deals.

If you have trouble understanding that, you're probably like the person who once asked Louis Armstrong to explain what jazz is.

"If you don't know," Armstrong said, "you'll never get it."

But even if you're in public office and your ethical radar is completely scrambled, you can save yourself a lot of grief by putting two and two together.

For instance, if a previous county commissioner had used his office to gain business contracts and gotten beat up in the newspaper for it, then if you do the same thing, you can expect to get beaten up in the newspaper for it too. So don't do it.

Politicians always complain that negative campaigning turns voters off and drives them away from the polls.

What turns voters off are not just the accusations of flaws, but the flaws themselves.

The cumulative weight of all the charges of wrongdoing made against so many politicians today undermines confidence even in those who are doing a good, honest job.

What about the $136,673 congressional salary? That sum is far less than the amount paid to many executives with equal jobs in private industry.

But voters have a tendency to compare their own pay -- which in the U.S. averages $35,492 a year for a family of four -- not with the pay of executives but with that of public officials.

Politicians on the campaign trail say they want to identify with the common man. If they really mean it, then maybe they should accept a common man's salary. That's something that 69 percent of the public would support.