It seems the Democrats are going to be proactive on dealing with the corrupting influence of lobbyists and pork when they take over the Congress in January according to the Washington Post
Despite divisions among Democrats over how far to go in revising ethics rules, House leaders plan a major rollout of an ethics reform bill early next year to demonstrate concern about an issue that helped defeat the Republicans in the midterm elections.
But they will do it with a twist: Instead of forwarding one big bill, Democrats will put together an ethics package on the House floor piece by piece, allowing incoming freshmen to take charge of high-profile issues and lengthening the time spent on the debate. The approach will ensure that each proposal -- including banning gifts, meals and travel from lobbyists as well as imposing new controls on the budget deficit -- is debated on its own and receives its own vote. That should garner far more media attention for the bill's components before a final vote on the entire package.
...Democratic leadership aides said the proposal to break up the package and reassemble it is virtually a done deal.
Under that plan, freshmen would offer, over as many as five days in January, separate amendments to ban gifts, meals and travel financed by lobbyists, said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), incoming chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. New rules mandating the disclosure of all contacts with lobbyists would be another vote, as would a rule requiring that the sponsors of funding for home-state pet projects be identified. The House would also vote on whether to reinstate budget rules, known as pay-as-you-go, or "paygo," requiring that any new spending or tax cuts be offset by equal spending cuts or tax increases.
I think this is terrific. Democrats may, and likely will, deconstruct themselves on other issues, but if they do nothing else right in the next two years but this, I will consider the 110<sup>th</sup) Congress a success (unless of course, other decisions by Democrats wind up replacing the Constitution with the Quran). And such reforms will affect the way Congress does business for decades to come, which will be just peachy.
And consider; if Democrats get this done, and they don't screw up on the War, they may retain power for a while to come.
At which point, minority Republicans will just have to sit back and reflect on what they could have done when they had the majority...
and didn't.
