The Democrat ethics scam

Robert Novak:

THE final version of the widely celebrated ethics bill, passed by overwhelming margins in both House and Senate a month ago, finally and quietly made its way last week from Capitol Hill to the White House. It surely will soon be signed into law by President Bush. What only a handful of leaders and insiders realize is that this measure, avowedly dedicated to transparency, actually makes it easier for the Senate to pass pet projects without the public - or many senators - being aware of it.

Until now, one or two senators could block any provision that had not been passed by either Senate or House from being inserted, usually at the end of a session, in the final version of a bill. Under the new rule, it will take 40 senators to block such proposals that are protected by the majority or even the bipartisan leadership. That'll make it much easier to enact any number of special-interest measures, which is the goal of all-too-many Congress members.

This momentous change couldn't have slipped by without bipartisan Senate leadership connivance, but was unknown to ordinary senators, much less the general public. Deception is the watchword on Capitol Hill. Outsiders do not realize that the ethics bill was held for a month after passage Aug. 2 before going to the president's desk. It was delayed to prevent Bush from exercising a "pocket veto": not signing the bill during the August recess when an absent Congress couldn't override it.

On Aug. 2, Republican reform Sen. Tom Coburn called the just-enacted ethics bill "a landmark betrayal, not a landmark accomplishment. Congress had a historic opportunity to expose secretive pork-barrel spending but instead created new ways to hide that spending."

As for the act's highly publicized new restrictions on lobbyists, Coburn asserted that "the problem in Washington is not the lobbyists" but "members of Congress." He voted no as the bill passed the Senate, 83 to 14 on Aug. 2 (and the House a day earlier, 411 to 8).

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It looks like Congress has put together a veto proof majority in favor of the politics of fraud. It is not surprising that Democrats would lead this scam. It is just another demonstration of their fraudulent promises made in the last election. This is also a failure for those of us who have been pushing the pork buster's agenda. It will be even more difficult now to discover the theft of public money through the appropriation process. Some people will rob you with a gun and some with an earmark.