MUST READ: Representative #1 Steps Aside

Yesterday, disgraced Congressman Bob Ney announced he would not seek reelection after years of accepting lavish meals, gifts, and trips in exchange for official favors. While Congressional Democrats have consistently pushed for and proposed an aggressive ethics reform package, Republicans have supported far less aggressive measures. An editorial in today's Washington Post notes that while Congressman Ney has stepped down, Congressional republicans have done nothing substantively to end their corrupt pay-to-play system which allowed Ney and others in his party to abuse their power.

Representative #1 Steps Aside
Ohio Republican Bob Ney won't seek reelection. But the system he exploited lives on.
Editorial
Washington Post
August 8, 2006

"He is, in the guarded language of criminal indictments, 'Representative #1.' His former chief of staff has pleaded guilty to conspiring to corrupt the congressman's official actions, accepting gifts and trips to sway the lawmaker while still a Hill staffer and then, as a lobbyist, plying the congressman with more such goodies in exchange for his help. So, naturally, when Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) announced yesterday that he would not -- contrary to earlier vows -- seek reelection, he cited his family. 'I must think of them first, and I can no longer put them through this ordeal,' Mr. Ney said in a statement. ...

"...Lawyers for the six-term House member termed his decision 'a political and practical one and not a legal one,' and indeed, in political and practical terms, the move may be a boon to the GOP: In a state plagued by corruption charges, Mr. Ney was facing a serious challenge from Dover city attorney Zack Space, a Democrat. Republican state Sen. Joy Padgett, who's been asked to run by Mr. Ney and House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), may have a better chance at helping the party keep the traditionally Republican district. And it may diminish the salience of the corruption issue in Ohio, where the governorship and a U.S. Senate seat are also being contested in November.

"But it won't change the squalid system that facilitated Mr. Ney's gross behavior. Congress left town for its long August break having done nothing to tighten rules on privately funded travel or other lobbyist-supplied benefits. The lobbying reform legislation produced by the House is a fig leaf for business as usual -- and, in any event, is mired in a yet-to-occur conference with the Senate. If those who control Congress really want to dispense with the corruption issue, they need to do more than dispense with one inconvenient race."

To read this entire editorial, please click here.