Republicans are being enveloped by scandal. Though the war in Iraq was a top issue for voters in 2006, polls indicated that corruption was also a major concern for many who wanted a new congressional majority.
The lobbyist Jack Abramoff's ties to Rep. Robert Ney and Sen. Conrad Burns cost these men their seats. Abramoff, combined with the violation of Texas campaign finance laws, brought down the powerful House leader Tom DeLay. Rep. Mark Foley's racy texts to underage pages sent Republican voters into a frenzy days before the election.
Since November, Republicans haven't caught their breath. Scandals about money and sex are threatening to relegate the GOP to long-term minority status. Sordid tales keep coming out of Washington. Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young are being investigated for alleged financial gains involving the Veco oil company. Sen. Larry Craig's foot-tapping fiasco has threatened his career, and could cost the GOP a powerful member. Tom Feeney and John Doolittle are being investigated for their ties to Abramoff.
The stories don't end there. While there have been Democratic scandals -- like Rep. William Jefferson's indictment for racketeering, money-laundering, and the solicitation of bribes -- most problems have involved Republicans.
But this is far from the first time that Americans have seen a party suffer as a result of scandal. During the 1970s, for example, Democrats were on the hot seat. The Democrats had controlled Congress since 1954, yet scandals brought down a large number of powerful congressmen and left the party without some of its most influential leaders.
One notorious case involved Rep. Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, who was called "the most powerful man in Washington" as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which controlled taxation, Social Security, Medicare, and trade. In October, 1974, the Washington Park Police stopped a Lincoln Continental speeding near the Jefferson Memorial. A woman, who turned out to be a local stripper named Fanne Fox, known as "The Argentine Firecracker," jumped out of the car and into the Tidal Basin. Mills followed her from the car. After Mills admitted that he was an alcoholic, voters reelected him next month. But this incident ultimately ended his political career. He was forced to resign his chairmanship and abandoned future election plans after he stumbled drunkenly onto the stage of a Boston strip club during Fox's performance -- in front of a room full of reporters.
In 1976, another major Democratic House leader was driven from office by scandal. Wayne Hayes, powerful chairman of the House Administration Committee, had to resign after it was revealed that he had used public funds to pay the $14,000 annual salary of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Ray. Ray was quoted by The Washington Post as saying, "I can't type, I can't file, I can't even answer the phone."
That same year, Florida Democrat Robert Sikes was reprimanded for financial misconduct and conflict of interest as chair of the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee. Six years later, the liberal icon Sen. Harrison Williams of New Jersey had to resign after he was indicted in the ABSCAM scandal. Undercover FBI agents had taped legislators taking bribes from Arab sheiks. Williams later spent three years in jail.
Confronting these scandals, younger liberal Democrats and Republicans sought reforms in the 1970s. They made the legislative process more transparent and power harder to maintain. They strengthened the ethics rules in both chambers. Proceedings were opened to the public -- as well as television cameras. Congress agreed to limit campaign contributions and create an independent commission to monitor election finances. Reformers diminished the power of congressional committee chairmen and empowered party leaders.
Nonetheless, reformers in the 1970s left some key issues untouched. Most important, they did not create a system of public finance for congressional elections -- and the pressure to raise private funds has only increased. Nor did they create an independent body to monitor the ethics of legislators. As a result, the reforms of the 1970s left in place some of the underlying pressures fueling bad behavior by Congress.
During the 1980s and 1990s, conservative Republicans were able to mount an effective attack on Democratic leaders as a party of corruption. In 1989, Speaker James Wright of Texas was forced to resign after Common Cause, Republicans, and the Ethics Committee charged him with numerous ethics violations including the sale of a book of his speeches to trade associations as a means of avoiding outside earned income restrictions in the House rules. A young congressman named Newt Gingrich headed the attack.
In 1991 and 1992, the GOP publicized a report by the General Accounting Office that revealed 269 sitting representatives had bounced checks at the House Bank but they had not been required to pay any penalties. In the 1992 congressional elections, 77 members implicated in the House Bank scandal retired or were defeated.
All these accusations fueled the 1994 midterm elections when Republicans reclaimed control of Congress. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, lost his seat as a result of a scandal -- and later went to prison.
Democrats now control Congress and need to decide what to do in light of the current Republican scandals. Each new tale of sleaze makes it that much harder for the GOP to reclaim control. But while Democrats have been able to capitalize on the scandals to gain control of Congress, they have been less effective at reforming the system that led to the problems at hand.
Democrats did pass an ethics bill that created stronger disclosure rules on granting earmarks through the budget and bundling of contributions by lobbyists. The president is likely to sign the legislation. Yet because Congress refused to create an independent commission, and sidestepped the issue of limiting private money in elections, the reforms are likely to be difficult to sustain. Moreover, Congress failed to impose tough reforms on problems like the revolving door between Congress and K Street.
In the short-term, the current failure to achieve bolder reform does not matter to Democrats since voters are likely to turn to other issues such as Iraq. But in the long-term, failing to deal with the causes behind the scandals is a recipe for political disaster. Because Democrats have done very little to deal with the issues at the root cause of many of today's scandals -- namely the pervasive role of private money in congressional politics and the porous wall still separating legislative from lobbying staffs.
Until these reforms are undertaken, the pressures will continue. They will eventually become Democratic problems and they will be the party to suffer while they are in command of Capitol Hill.
Julian E. Zelizer is Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He is writing a history of the politics of national security which will be published by Yale University Press. Next year Harvard University Press will publish a book that he co-edited, "Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s." He is also the author of "On Capitol Hill" and the editor of "The American Congress."
Microsoft Corporation expended over $20 million in so-called "lobbying expenditures" just between 1998 and 2000. Microsoft spent millions more on so-called "campaign finance contributions" during the period.
What was their leading legislative priority during this period? According to an article from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, it was to boost the cap for the controversial H-1B visa program. Microsoft in fact helped to procure three beneficial (to Microsoft) changes to the H-1B visa program in 1996, 1998, and 2000.
Now, what was the name of that lawyer that Microsoft hired - via Bill Gates, III father - in 1995? Jack Abramoff, who worked his team and with House leaders such as Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX.) In fact, once the Abramoff Scandal broke, Microsoft hired the Democratic lobbying firm Glover Park Group to help distance the firm from Jack Abramoff!
So, Microsoft provides "things of value" to the tune of less than $100 million. The "official acts" summarized above have been worth billions annually to Microsoft as the firm displaced experienced American citizen technical professionals for "fresh young (inexpensive) blood, mostly from China and India. Who has been hurt? Millions of American families, whose breadwinners are now employed in lower-paying jobs that make scant use of their training or experience.
This author will email you a gratis just-completed seven page investigative journalism article on this topic titled, "The Abramoff Visa." Just send him an email at c0003180@airmail.net BTW, the author has testified twice against this corrupt visa program in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Hillary and her campaign contibutions that are getting no air time. Also Obama and others who took money from Hsu.
Jefferson and the freezer?
The two Democratic mayors that just got busted for corruption in their cities, New Jersey I think.
And then simply the ENTIRE Democratic party wanting us to lose in Iraq and the daily spewing of insults to our military.
But, oh no, it is the Republicans that are the only ones in corruption....yeah...OK.
I believe some Democratic issues were mentioned. It would also seem to me that in order to be financially competitive in a national campaign you have to skirt the rules. That is one of the major points of the article.
But also to agree with you I think most politicians are corrupt. They make their way by saying what the people in front of them at the moment want to hear. This makes for a good liar.
The only other solution I see is to vote all the bastards out.
And it's just going to get worse. The republicans are thieves and liars. Period. The will keep spitting out scandals like guppies spit out fry all the way until the big wipeout in 2008