It's a matter of trust and integrity

After the House Republicans' miserable record on ethics -- and having four members resign in disgrace within a year qualifies as miserable -- the new Democratic majority is promising a program of major ethics reform.
Fine. We hope they get right to it, clamping down on lawmakers' access to recreational travel, gifts, meals, luxury sky boxes, corporate jets and other freebies that special interests are wont to shower on the people doing the people's business.
However, the new leadership should look with great skepticism on one proposal being mulled over by new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- creation of an independent outside office of public integrity, which would be staffed by nonpartisan professionals to investigate charges of ethical misconduct.
Presumably, that body would replace the much-abused House ethics committee, which has been missing from action most of the last two years. Even though that committee is not a popular assignment and many members don't want to serve on it, the committee, when allowed to do its job, has operated acceptably.
DeLay's attack
In fact, in the opinion of the Republican leadership, the committee was doing its job too well in admonishing one of their number, Majority Leader Tom DeLay, three times, and set out to gut the committee by rewriting its rules and packing it with DeLay loyalists. It was an ethical blunder that led, along with much else, to the unraveling of the Republican majority. The point here is that the committee can work.
Congressional members accused of crimes are subject to federal and state prosecution, and indeed some are in jail or headed there. The Constitution gives them some protections against libel and slander charges and arrest while doing congressional business with the pretty broad exception of "Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace."
If the House must create an independent investigatory body, it should be mindful of the government's experience with special prosecutors whose investigations tend to grow all out of proportion to the original allegation.
Finally, the House consists of 435 individuals -- most of them lawyers, by the way -- chosen by the people supposedly because of their character and talent. What horrible message does it send that they cannot be trusted to police themselves?
Scripps Howard News Service