The Culture of Corruption

Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean are among the a number of Democratic leaders calling for voters to punish Congressional Republicans for allowing a 'culture of corruption' to develop in Washington. It's becoming clearer that they may be right.

But the problem clearly goes beyond the names you're reading in the paper every day: people like Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, Tom DeLay and others. Turns out there are a bunch of offenders who are not getting as much attention. I'm reminded of this by story on CNN today. It reports that John Conyers, the Senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and the second-ranking Member of the House overall, has been using his staff to baby-sit his kids, and been forcing them to work on other people's campaigns. There's some more detail in this recent article from the publication "The Hill."

Mr. Conyers's staff got in trouble last year for stealing Thanksgiving turkeys from a food bank.

Besides Mr. Conyers, I'm sure you've read about Cynthia McKinney, and her apparent assault of a Capitol Police officer.

I've written below about Congressman Alan Mollohan - Senior Democrat on the House Ethics Committee - and the windfalls he seems to have secured from his position on the Appropriations Committee.

There are also allegations that Congressman Bill Jefferson - one of the smarter and easier to work with Democrats in Congress - demanded bribes in exchange for assistance on telecommunications deals.

You've got Jim McDermott, convicted for illegally taping and disseminating a private conversation among political rivals.

There's Chuck Schumer, whose staff at the DSCC has pled guilty to illegally posing as Senate candidate Michael Steele, in order to obtain his credit records.

Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid accepted $61,000 from Native American tribes who employed Jack Abramoff, but only after Abramoff came on board to represent them. One of those tribes even donated to Reid immediately after he acted on their behalf.

The hits just keep on coming...