Lawmakers offer ethics rules for new Congress

By Andy Sullivan Tue Dec 5, 2006

...Democratic leaders, who made the Republican "culture of corruption" a central theme of their campaign to recapture Congress, have promised to make ethics reform their first order of business when they take control in January.

The measures outlined by Meehan and other reform advocates include an independent office to investigate ethics complaints against members of Congress. That proposal was stripped out of a Senate bill in March as critics said they were capable of policing themselves.

This year's scandals proved that the existing House and Senate ethics committees aren't up to the job, reformers said.

"No group is capable of self-policing," said Connecticut Republican Rep. Christopher Shays (news, bio, voting record).       From YahooNews

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    Ethics rules and laws have come before many administrations, both Democrat and Republican, only to get shot down or watered down to where they were of no use. Maybe with the 'New Breed' of Democrats coming into power in less than a month, things will change for once.

    We can only hope, right?