E.J. Dionne Jr.: Reformers Without Results
Posted on Jan 1, 2007
By E.J. Dionne
WASHINGTON—This time, it’s going to be different.
Whenever a new crowd displaces an old guard, the promise is always the same. The fresh managers swear they understand what the tired bunch they’re replacing did wrong and vow to make all things new.
The Democrats who take power in Congress on Thursday have been given an opportunity that has not come their party’s way for a half-century: They can remake their own image—and Congress’—and they can begin to restore public confidence in government.
Although control of the Senate has flip-flopped between the parties since 1980, the House has stayed in one party’s hands for long periods. Democrats controlled the House for 40 years after 1954, Republicans for the last 12. The 2006 election marked the first time since that 1954 contest that both houses switched from the Republicans to the Democrats.
This allows the new Democratic majority, in principle at least, to come in with no commitments to doing business as it was done in the immediate past.
If Democrats don’t seize this rare opportunity, their party will pay for a long time. Not only will they disillusion their own supporters. More importantly, the angry centrists of the Ross Perot stripe who voted the Republicans out last year will either go back to the GOP or seek other options.
The first opportunity in the House will come on the very first day when a package of reforms comes up for a vote. The Senate will take its own steps soon after. At stake initially are new ethics and lobbying rules. Over time House and Senate leaders will have to prove their commitment to bringing more democracy to the way Congress is run. A country that claims a mission to democracy and transparent government in the rest of the world needs to get its own institutions in order.
The new congressional leadership seems to recognize how important it is to get ethics and lobbying reform right. In the House, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer have sent members strongly worded proposals that would, among other things, ban gifts from lobbyists, lobbyist-paid travel and the use of company planes.
Congress will also consider a series of important lobbying reforms, many of them designed to strengthen inadequate disclosure requirements so the public knows who is doing what. One of my favorite ideas, from the veteran reformer Fred Wertheimer, would call upon lobbyists and lobbying organizations to disclose the earmarks they have lobbied for and the sponsors of those earmarks in the reports they are required to file with Congress.
The new Congress is already talking about mandating that members disclose their sponsorship of earmarks, those special little (or not-so-little) spending projects and tax breaks inserted into various bills with almost no public attention. But such disclosure does not tell citizens all they need to know, such as which lobbyists and which interest groups are pushing which special programs.
Fiscal conservatives who claim they can’t stand those earmarks should rally to this idea. The best way to stop unjustified earmarks is to shed as much light as possible on their purpose and their provenance.
What the Democrats are talking about sounds good. What will matter is that the provisions they pass not contain loopholes that render them far less sweeping than they seem.
Members of Congress can legitimately ask for reasonable rules so they are not caught up unintentionally or unfairly in violations. But much will depend on the definition of “reasonable.” Passing rules that don’t rein in the corruption that became so obvious in the last Congress will be worse than passing nothing because the hypocrisy will be obvious.
And any Democrats who think this anti-corruption talk is just a fad should consult a memo written two weeks after November’s elections by Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the incoming chairman of the Democratic Caucus and the House’s shrewdest electoral tactician.
Emanuel counted eight districts the Democrats won in large part because of corruption issues. The Democrats, he said, need to be the reformers they said they’d be. “Failing to deliver on this promise,” he added, “would be devastating to our standing with the public, and certainly [would] jeopardize some of our marginal seats.”
President Bush briefly claimed back in 2000 to be “a reformer with results.” This time, the voters who mattered in 2006 expect reform to be one of the results of the ballots they cast for Democrats.
E.J. Dionne Jr.’s e-mail address is postchat@aol.com.
Copyright 2006 Washington Post Writers Group
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Jump to Comments
By HeadlessHessian, January 3, 2007 at 7:19 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Yah yeah yea...I agree with everyone. Now for a small correction:
So do the Dems have the boxes or the balls. Well ..we shall see! 
On comment 45021. You use the word Cajones. I’m sure you meant Cojones! In spanish, where this word comes from, cajones means boxes. As is wooden boxes, cardboard boxes. Cojones means balls! Big balls! As in ‘Man you have balls to do that’. You would not say ‘Man you have boxes to do that”!
CojonesMan
aka Headless
Report thisBy Carl Stephenson, January 3, 2007 at 6:45 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
There comments are right on the mark.
Report thisThey have been playing with other peoples lives
for far too long. No more *human sacrifice*.
By felicity, January 3, 2007 at 12:30 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
comment #44953
Right on - the only problem is unethical people are incapable of identifying what is ethical and what isn’t. Most politicians are basically unethical. If they aren’t when they take office, they soon change their stripes when they realize that our system of government demands unethical behavior if one wants to get re-elected.
Perhaps a non-governmental body should determine meaningful ethics reform for Congress - and let’s not leave out the other branch.
Comment #45078
Right on. This house is beyond rotten and must be torn down. Hopefully the remaining vacant land is still stable enough to be built on. I have my doubts.
Report thisBy mite, January 3, 2007 at 7:24 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
From: A Handbook For Jurors-
God created man:
Man created the Constitution:
Constitution created government:
Government created corporations, etc:
I draw every ‘Free person’ to this handy little booklet. I suggest this booklet should be with everyone daily, like your cell-phone, and credit cards.
After reading this booklet in one sitting (instead of TV) one night; ask yourself this: Do my Representatives’ represent ME? Then re-read what ‘TREASON’ Is. Just to address ‘one’ thing read the “Oath of Office.
Now from history facts from 1913 to 2007 can we honestly believe a democrat or republican cares about ‘The People’ or Lobby smirfs and the almighty fiat dollar.
I draw our attention to the ‘Press-Media’ and their responsiblity to ‘The People’ or should I say “responsibilty to fiat dollars”. Is not the press to allow the flow of truth to us? Or does the Press-Media also contribute to the enemies of this ‘Republic’ and be held accountable under the meaning of treason.
Report thisBy Mark Robert Gates, January 2, 2007 at 7:06 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
© 2007 Mark Robert Gates
If you are waiting for only our’ elected government, make, ethics change, in our’ American government, then we already have the government you want. One, that rules over us, not one, of the people, by the people, and for whom?!!!! The people’s!
-Mark Robert Gates
please my blogs:
http://lokieponaphoenix.blogspot.com/
Report thishttp://wellnessempowered.blogspot.com/
By DennisD, January 2, 2007 at 4:23 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
The Dems have been playing by the same rules as the Reps for as long as quid pro quo has existed. I have rarely heard anyone speak out about earmarks or lobby reform. Our elected royalty has no problem doing endle$$ favors for their corporate $ponsors with taxpayers money. The word ethics only comes up when someone gets caught making a pig of themselves at the “K” street money trough.
Report thisTo think that our elected racketeers current program of self enrichment will end because they put a new face at the podium is a delusion.
Like a house that’s rotten from the basement to the roof, our current system needs to be torn down to save it.
By candideinnc, January 2, 2007 at 3:06 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Dinners and disclosure--meaningless “reforms.” The true problem is as it has always been: campaign contributions. Instead of finding men of principle who speak their minds and act their conscience, the American election system is designed to choose men of money or bought men willing to represent the moneyed interests. Only publicly funded and controlled elections will ever resolve this dilemma.
Report thisBy GDAEman, January 2, 2007 at 12:15 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I’m glad to see this view expressed in mainstream media. My thoughts, exactly, on November 8, 2006. Do the Democrats Have the Cajones?
However, it appears that we’re facing A Discredited American Political Elite
Report this.
By Sam Thornton, January 2, 2007 at 9:15 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
You’re exactly right, E.J. However, the single most critical issue that returned power to the Democrats was dissatisfaction with the Iraq adventure. If, as expected, the President announces more of the same in his upcoming revelations to the public and Congress doesn’t cut him off at the knees, expect an explosion of public rage.
Report thisBy KISS, January 2, 2007 at 6:51 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Let us hope K street is not filled with ex-Dimmos and business is as usual partners. Governor Spitzer of New York has done more in 15 seconds to show open and transparent government than 40 years previous. A good edict to follow for congress.
Report thisBy WCG, January 2, 2007 at 5:29 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Nothing - nothing - the Democrats plan to do is as important to the country as ethics reform. Yes, there are many critical issues, but most of them are short-term. Ethics reform - including lobbying reform and transparency in government - is a critical long-term issue. If implemented correctly, it will be a legacy of this Congress that will last for many, many years. I hope they accomplish many other things, too. But if they do everything else, but fail to implement strict, solid, meaningful ethics reform, then this Congress will have failed the American people.
Report this