Ethics
Training for Congress? Dream On
In Washington, anyone can be
blatantly unethical, as long as
they don’t technically break
laws.
By Jim Hightower
December 23, 2014 "ICH"
- Do you — or does anyone
— really need a book of rules
and a three-hour briefing to do
your job ethically?
If you’re a
Congress critter, apparently so.
For that’s what newly elected
lawmakers have
just received.
Nearly all
those newcomers rode to victory
on a tsunami of inherently
corrupting corporate cash. Now
they’re being instructed in a
crash course on Capitol Hill
ethics.
That is,
they’re not learning how to be
ethical, exactly — just how to
avoid ending up being
investigated, indicted, or
thrown in jail.
You see, in
Washington’s rarefied air,
anyone can be blatantly
unethical, as long as they don’t
technically break laws. It’s a
fine line, so this latest class
of special-interest lawmakers
proved eager learners.
But in
practice, even actually crossing
that line is no barrier to
congressional service.
Representative
Michael Grimm of Staten Island,
for example, is back in Congress
even though he was
caught on tape threatening
to throw a reporter off a
balcony. The appropriately named
Grimm, a Republican, is also
under indictment for
20 counts of accounting
fraud.
Errant
Democrats abound, too. Take
Charlie Rangel of New York, who
has been formally censured by
Congress for a
mess of ethics violations.
Rather than going to the Big
House, Rangel is back in the
House of Representatives. His
constituents reelected him on
November 4, and he faced no
Republican opponent.
There’s now a
bipartisan move in the House to
require annual ethics training
for every lawmaker. Backers
claim that this will enhance the
public reputation of each member
and of Congress itself.
Dream on — who
do they think they’re kidding?
These
so-called adults — who didn’t
absorb basic ethics from their
kindergarten teachers or parents
— sure won’t learn anything to
improve their morality in a
congressional classroom.
