Senate Votes Down Office Of Public Integrity.

Source: Washington Post

With all that talk of ethics and the impeding Abramoff scandal sentencing, you honestly didn't expect them to be serious about reforming politics did you?

The Senate rejected a proposal to establish an independent office to investigate ethics complaints against its members, and then cleared the way to pass a broad-based ethics and lobbying bill this week.

On a 67 to 30 vote, the Senate defeated a bipartisan proposal to create an office of public integrity, which its backers said was designed to strengthen enforcement of Senate rules and bolster voters' trust in Congress in the aftermath of the guilty plea in January of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee had killed a similar proposal March 2 after current and former members of the Senate's ethics committee called the office superfluous. The top Republican and the senior Democrat on the ethics panel led the successful effort to bury the proposal yesterday for a second time.

The rejected measure was devised by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). They asserted that lobbying and ethics rules need to be better enforced for the public to regain trust in congressional officials.

I guess the perks of being a "hired gun" career-politician on the Hill are too much to give up.

Just another case of "do as I say, not as I do."

You would think with the scandals and approval ratings of Congress at an all-time low, legislation like this would be a slam dunk...a guaranteed fix. I guess not.

"The fact remains that public confidence in Congress is near an all-time low," Collins said. "Strengthening the enforcement mechanism is critical" to improving lawmakers' reputations, she added.

Government watchdog groups reacted quickly and angrily to the vote. "The Senate today is refusing to acknowledge that Congress -- in the eyes of the public -- has failed to police itself," said Common Cause President Chellie Pingree.

Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said the vote against the office shows that the "Senate is out of touch."

Thanks again, guys, for restoring our faith in the U.S. political system. And Joan Claybrook is right, this Senate is denying the obvious, and they're way out of touch.

Tags: [Senate], [Senate defeated a bipartisan proposal to create an office of public integrity], [Susan Collins], [Joseph I. Lieberman], [John McCain], [aftermath of the guilty plea in January of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff], [public confidence in Congress is near an all-time low], [Chellie Pingree], [Joan Claybrook], [Public Citizen]