Slate's Bizbox
chatterbox: Gossip, speculation, and scuttlebutt about politics.

How To Evade the New Ethics BillAnd why it should become law anyway.

By Timothy Noah
Posted Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007, at 7:45 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

The ethics bill would prohibit the spouse of a House member "from making any lobbying contact" with the staff of her husband (or his wife). In the Senate, the prohibition covers not only the spouse but also "any immediate family member," and for the spouse extends not only to the staff of the husband or wife, but also to other senators and their staffs.

It's admirably nervy for the Democrats to take on the spouse issue, because the best-known congressional spouse/lobbyist of recent years was probably Linda Daschle, wife of former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. The Senate version of this prohibition is significantly better than the House version, especially considering that congressional spouses already tend to avoid lobbying the staffs of their own spouses (because it's so clearly tacky). The real potential problem is a congressional spouse who lobbies her husband's or his wife's congressional colleagues. The House version is entirely useless in that regard. Let's hope House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D.-Calif., takes another whack at this one soon.

Even the Senate version can be gotten around if the spouse was a registered lobbyist one year before her husband's or his wife's election to the Senate. Essentially, the Senate version would prohibit a spouse from cashing in on her husband or his wife's election only after the fact. That's a particularly offensive practice and it's well worth ending. But it's fairly common for senators (like Daschle) to date lobbyists and eventually marry them. In such instances, the spouse would continue to reap the windfall. Even though it's unfair to the spouse, the House and Senate ought to put all lobbying spouses out of business. Hey, you don't like the rule? Don't marry a member of Congress.

Cracking Down on Legislative Earmarks. "Earmarking" is a verb with many meanings, but lately it's usually referred to a member of Congress quietly inserting a provision into a bill without being identified as that provision's author. Earmarks were former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's preferred method of rewarding the defense contractors who paid him bribes. The San Diego Republican, who is currently serving an eight-year sentence, participated in the biggest bribery scandal, dollar-wise, in American history. (Duke collected an estimated $2.4 million in payoffs, but made it way too easy to get caught by writing down precisely how much he expected to be paid for each appropriation.)

The ethics bill requires senators who sponsor earmarks to identify themselves at various points in the process. (The House enacted a similar requirement last year.) I had trouble understanding some of the more rococo parliamentary language, so I'm not going to discuss it in detail. But phrases like "to the extent technically feasible" and "as soon as practicable" and "consistent with the need to protect national security" suggest that the ban on anonymous earmarks can be gotten around at least to some extent. Sen. John McCain, R.-Az., maintains that the legislative language has been "completely gutted," and a White House spokesperson has called it "toothless." But McCain can't really afford, politically, to say anything nice about the Democrat Congress right now, and President Bush probably dislikes the various ways the bill will limit (though, as we've seen, not eliminate) corporate influence on the legislative process.

The perfect is the enemy of the good, Mr. President, and if you veto this bill the public will likely conclude, accurately, that neither a perfect nor a good ethics bill suits your agenda. This one is way, way better than most.

VIEW AS SINGLE PAGE
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
E-mail Timothy Noah at .
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES