On Election Day, the American people sent a clear message to Washington: Clean up your act.
After a year in which too many scandals revealed the influence
special interests wield over Washington, it's no surprise that so many
incumbents were defeated and that polls said "corruption" was the
grievance cited most frequently by the voters.
It would be a mistake, however, to conclude the message was intended
for just one party or politician. The votes hadn't even been counted
before we heard reports that corporations were recruiting lobbyists
with Democratic connections.
That's why it's not enough to just change the players. We have to change the game.
Americans put their faith in Democrats because they want us to
restore their faith in government — and that means more than window
dressing when it comes to ethics reform.
Last year, I was hopeful that scandals would finally shame Congress
into meaningful ethics legislation. But after the headlines faded, so
did the enthusiasm for reform.
This time around, we must do more.
We must stop any and all practices that would lead a reasonable
person to believe a public servant is indebted to a lobbyist. That
means a ban on gifts and meals. It means no free travel or subsidized
travel on private jets. And it means closing the revolving door to
ensure that Capitol Hill service — whether as a member of Congress or
as a staffer — isn't all about lining up a high-paying lobbying job. We
should no longer tolerate a House committee chairman shepherding the
Medicare prescription drug bill through Congress while negotiating for
a job as the pharmaceutical industry's top lobbyist.
Real reform also means real enforcement. We need to take the
politics and the partisanship out of ethics investigations. Whether or
not the House ethics committee has been covering for its colleagues,
the secrecy with which its members have operated has led people to
question why legislators who are serving jail time were not caught and
stopped by the committee in the first place. It's led people to wonder
why Congress cannot seem to police itself.
A nonpartisan, independent ethics commission would act as the
American people's public watchdog over Congress. The panel would be
staffed with former judges and former members of Congress from both
parties, and it would allow any citizen to report possible ethics
violations by lawmakers, staff members or lobbyists. The commission
would have the authority to conduct investigations, issue subpoenas,
gather records, call witnesses, and provide a report to the Justice
Department or the House and Senate ethics committees that — unlike
current ethics committee reports — is available for all citizens to
read.
This would take politics out of the fact-finding phase of ethics
inquiries. And it would exert public pressure on Congress to punish
wrongdoing quickly and severely.
The truth is, we cannot change the way Washington works unless we
first change the way Congress works. On Nov. 7, voters gave Democrats
the chance to do this. But if we miss this opportunity to clean up our
act and restore this country's faith in government, the American people
might not give us another one.
This column first appeared in The Washington Post.
