NY Times on Ethics Reform

The Times is bent out of shape over broken promises:

The House’s new Democratic majority is flirting with disaster as it guts key provisions of the strict lobbying reform it promised voters last November. Rebellious lawmakers, worried about their own career path, fought their leaders to defeat tighter restrictions on the sleazy, revolving-door culture by which members of Congress move on from an apprenticeship of merely serving the people to real Washington money as insider lobbyists.

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For all the promises, the bundling disclosure mandate is in deep trouble as opposition mounts from Blue Dog, Hispanic and black caucus Democrats intent on protecting their re-election campaigns. The pity is that the proposal they are fighting doesn’t even stop this ethically indefensible practice — it merely puts the details on the record.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows failure to approve bundling disclosure will reduce the Democrats’ vaunted vows to political farce and shorten their chances of retaining the majority. Republicans are chortling, but the smarter moderates in their ranks better keep their eyes on the people’s agenda, not the lobbyists’ A.T.M.’s. A crucial vote over the lobby bill’s debating rule is about to determine whether reform dies at the hands of greedy incumbents. They might remember that next year’s voters will check for enactment of last year’s promises.

Two things. While I don't agree with any of the proposals put forth for this "ethics reform" package, I will say that if you promise to do something as a party, you should follow throught. Look at the Contract with America. The GOP did not promise to enact into law all the points, just vote on them in the first 100 days. They did so, they kept the promise. Democrats promised something, indeed made the ethical challenges of the GOP a focal point of their campaign--yet failed to deliver. Not smart if you want to keep control.

Second, note the the NY Times does not take all Democrats to task, only the conservative Blue Dogs and the minority caucuses. The failure is not with these groups, their self-interest is understandable. The failure belongs to Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and the rest of the Democratic leadership for failing to rally their caucus. The failure of leadership will presage the failure of the caucus and could cost them control in 2008.