A 'culture of corruption' can only grow in the dark

Now that the level of corruption in Washington, D.C., has become evident for anyone to see, Republicans and Democrats are falling over each other to offer solutions.
It makes for good political theater, but little else. The Republicans are trying to minimize the damage from the Abramoff scandal while the Democrats are trying to maximize it.
The most effective curb against corruption should be to send criminal congressmen to jail. Yet it's instructive that even while the Mahoning Valley's Democratic congressman, James A. Traficant Jr., was being tried for bribery, expelled from Congress and sent to jail a few years ago, a colleague, Randall "Duke" Cunningham, a California Republican, continued to stuff his own pockets with bribe money.
Faces sentencing
While Traficant's transgressions amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars, Cunningham dealt in millions. Unlike Traficant, when caught, Cunningham pleaded guilty and resigned from Congress. He will be sentenced next month and faces up to 10 years in jail.
But we have to wonder, how many of the 420 House members who voted to expel Traficant in July 2002 will be joining him and Cunningham in jail. Probably not as many as should.
There are honest members of Congress. But we have to fear that their numbers have been shrinking. It is difficult to believe that Cunningham's colleagues did not take note of his lifestyle, which included driving a Rolls-Royce and living on a yacht. And it is difficult to believe that they weren't aware that other members were taking trips or accepting favors that were far beyond legitimate.
A culture of corruption cannot exist without a willing buyer of favors, a willing seller and a lot of other people who are willing to look the other way.
The first thing the House has to do is reorganize its ethics committee, restoring it to a position of clout and prestige. The committee should have the power to initiate investigations and to accept complaints from any source, and its members should have the character and courage to do so.
Specific legislative remedies can follow.