Well it appears it is official: The Republicans have quit on ethics reform.Below is another report I found that suggests that once the Republicans found out the potential effect of ethics reform, they backed down.
"Once the stink over Jack Abramoff's antics reached a peak in Washington, congressional leaders embarked on lobbying reform. But now that it's getting down to actual tough measures to bolster ethics rules, members seem to be getting cold feet.
When the Abramoff affair began to stick to Republicans, Democrats were quick to label the problem as a Republican issue. Republicans scoffed at the partisan spin, but their leaders knew they had a serious situation on their hands.
Republican leaders in the House knew they needed a reform plan that would win back some public trust, or else their party was going to be saddled with the baggage of Abramoff in an election year.
A funny thing happened to those Republican leaders when they sat down with the rank and file last week to go over proposals for lobbying reform: The bill started losing its bite.
The original calls had been to ban travel on private planes, ban meals and gifts from lobbyists and do something about the mounds of earmarks that were being slipped into bills, running up costs with pet projects. Now, GOP leaders are hearing objections from the membership. Members seem to like to travel on private aircraft. The calls for bans on gifts became more about disclosure than elimination. And the message began to emerge that members think the earmarks do a lot for their districts. The tone has changed.
Once the heat of the moment shifted from a lobbying scandal to issues like ports deals, the fervor for ethics reform cooled down. House Republican leaders still realize substantive action is needed, but they're having to drag members along with them. The effort now is to ban private travel temporarily to make time for the ethics committee to form a system for pre-approval of private trips. And some members don't even want that. They just want a pre-approval process and disclosure to go with it. And some don't want that.
The call for reform has taken on a hollow ring. Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., who heads the party's House campaign committee and knows the stakes, is calling the reform package a "work in progress." But last week it looked like little work and even less progress."
This is no surprise considering John Boehner is the new House Leader. He has already came out and said he is against ethics reform.
However, no need to worry.
Next year, the Democratically controlled Congress will pass ethics reform for the people!
Read about Congressman Ford's actions on ethics reform here! (1 , 2, 3)
Read about John Boehner's views opposing ethics reform here!
Read about John Boehner's broken promises regarding ethics reform here!
