Editorial: Ethics reform looking tepid

Saturday, March 18, 2006 | 7:11 a.m.

Proposals for ethics reform announced this week by Republican leaders in the House struck us as half-hearted considering the depth of the excesses revealed following the Jan. 3 conviction of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. When members of Congress are flying off to exotic lands on private jets for Epicurean rather than public purposes, calling into question the motivation behind their votes, emphatic reform is paramount.

Instead, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republican leaders came out with a tepid plan that bans private travel on a temporary basis only and takes no action against gift-giving other than requiring more disclosure. In our view this is the type of "reform" a politician would devise if he thought public uproar was only momentary.

Hastert said the leaders' plan would "sustain the integrity of the Congress as we move forward." We are always suspicious when a scandal produces someone planting the notion of moving forward, as if to say "dwelling on what happened is pointless, go back to your work, trust that we'll behave in the future." Rubbish.

Members of Congress, a majority of them Republicans, were and are routinely flouting congressional ethics rules and enjoying high-flying lifestyles provided by lobbyists who don't even live within their districts. Never mind "moving on" until these practices are reined in once and for all.

The House leaders' reform plan, announced by Hastert and Rep. David Dreier, chairman of the Rules Committee, bans private travel only until the current session of Congress ends. Meanwhile (after the uproar has died down), according to the plan, the House Ethics Committee would draft new rules regarding travel.

Hastert should have come out forcefully against members of Congress traveling on private planes. But other House members might not even go for a temporary ban. House Majority Leader John Boehner was notably, but not surprisingly, absent during Hastert's announcement. Scripps Howard News Service recently reported on the findings of Campaign for a Cleaner Congress, a public watchdog group.

From January 1999 to September 2005, Boehner was found to have taken "180 trips to destinations outside of his district, including trips to a number of exclusive golf resorts. Those excursions cost at least $818,000 and were paid for by Boehner's political action committee, congressional campaign and private interests."

Some rank-and-file House members are vocally protesting against Hastert's proposals, too, arguing that they are entitled to free trips on private jets. In our view there will be no reform of congressional ethics until members overcome this sense of entitlement. Members of Congress should get back to full-time representation of their districts, sans the demand for overabundant perks.