Lobby reform languishes in House

While I'm on the subject of memory lapses, I seem to recall somebody declaring that the new Congress was going to be the most ethical - evah. Help me out here, her name starts with a P and they kept calling her Madame Speaker... I guess we can forget that. It seems when it comes down to living up to the lofty rhetoric, like any addict, the House Dems can't give up their fix. The lobbyist reform bill drafted to great fanfare in January is slated to lose its key provisions. For instance:

Require lobbyists to disclose details about large donations they arrange for politicians.

Make former lawmakers wait two years, instead of one, before lobbying Congress.

Bar lobbyists from throwing large parties for lawmakers at national political conventions.

The chief stumbling block in the House centers on whether to require disclosures of a fundraising practice called bundling. It involves lobbyists soliciting and collecting campaign donations from other people and then presenting them in one package to the targeted candidate.

It's like they tore a page out of the GOP's handbook. Wait until the people are distracted by other news and pass something symbolic that doesn't change a thing. The bill was already too weak when it was first proposed. Lawmakers should have to wait ten years before they can lobby their former peers and bundling should be banned outright. That would close two of the widest avenues of undue corporate influence.

I'm not so unrealistic to think that the politicians would be able to cut themselves off cold turkey from the corporate perks and I know the bar to making this the most ethical Congress ever is set pretty damn low, but Democrats are going to have to do much better than this if they want to ride their gains into 08. Just being the not-Republicans is not going to be enough the next time. In the next tsunami of voter discontent, no incumbent's seat will be safe.

The electorate voted for change in 06. Mark my words, in 08 they'll be ready to make a clean sweep.