Wednesday, January 18, 2006
By MARTIN SCHRAM
Scripps Howard News Service
It is not enough that The Hammer was nailed, evicted without being convicted.
It is not enough that a tangle of overlapping scandals now clearly links ex-Republican leader Tom DeLay, his close lobbyist pal, Jack Abramoff, former DeLay aides and associates, and as-yet-uncounted members of Congress. It is not enough that, along with many Republicans, a few Democrats also got Abramoff-tainted money.
None of this is enough -- because the real corruption of Congress isn't centered upon the stylish lobbyist who costumed himself for his perp walk as Central Casting's idea of a Hasidic Soprano. The real corruption scandal is not even the relative handful of members who may someday be convicted for taking Abramoff's money and turning political tricks in return.
Lack of outrage
The real congressional corruption scandal is the lack of outrage from all who are members of what was once a Grand Old Party. It is a corruption of standards and decency -- yes, even a corruption of conservative values (including balanced budgets and safeguarding liberties).
And at the center of it is the moral, ethical and even political bankruptcy of the House Republican leadership. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the old guard of the Grand Old Party countenanced a culture of corruption, claiming not to see it, in the hopes that maybe the rest of us never would.
Now the speaker is performing a Capitol kabuki that would be comic, except for the fact that all who care deeply about our democracy know that it is quite tragic. Hastert recently gave back $69,000 in Abramoff-tainted political money that he thought was just fine when he accepted it, and still thought was just fine all the time he kept it, despite the revelations about Abramoff and DeLay.
The most recent: Hastert last week announced that the House will draft new rules to tighten the rules for lobbyists' contacts with representatives. "Now is the time for action," Hastert said in a written statement, as though he were the vanguard of ethical urgency.
Don't expect any action, though, in the way these contacts really happen: Republican and Democratic members alike initiate these contacts when they dial for dollars each day. They call lobbyists who represent special interests that are regulated by the committees on which the members sit. Senators and representatives ask the lobbyists for money for their campaigns ($5,000 for a primary election, another $5,000 for the general election). The lobbyists say they know they must ante up if they want to guarantee that they will have access to the lawmaker when an issue affecting this special interest comes up. This is perfectly legal -- even though it can be seen as a legal solicitation of a bribe.
Committee paralysis
DeLay made Hastert what he is today. Hastert, ever grateful, permitted and even facilitated the undoing of the House ethics committee, beginning with the time it admonished DeLay for an earlier transgression. Hastert oversaw the Republican chairman's removal and replacement with a chairman who has longstanding ties to a law firm at the center of the DeLay-Abramoff controversy. You will be shocked to learn that the committee has been paralyzed ever since.
House Republicans will soon meet to elect a new leader to fill DeLay's vacancy. The two leading candidates so far, acting leader Roy Blunt of Missouri and John Boehner of Ohio, have much in common: They are the old guard; both accepted money from Abramoff clients.
But there are a number of well-respected Republican House members who have demonstrated leadership abilities and were never Abramoffered. This should be their time.
What is needed most of all is a thorough House cleaning. New leaders, some new chairmen. Especially for a new, revitalized ethics committee. But even that won't be enough.
A thorough House cleaning demands a new House speaker. The good news here is that this has occurred to at least one of the new guard of the Grand Old Party. The Washington Post reported last Monday: "In the first sign that even Hastert could be in trouble, Rep. John E. Sweeney, R-N.Y., said Republicans should consider whether to replace the speaker. 'The time is right for us to do some soul-searching and have an open dialogue about the direction of the House.'"
It is not likely to happen. But it should. House Republicans need to jettison all of the old leaders who have become the poster-persons for the culture of corruption -- a corruption not just of money and politics, but of standards and decency. They need to not just reform, but re-form.
X Martin Schram writes political analysis for Scripps Howard News Service.