International Herald Tribune Editorial - U.S. Congress: Desperately seeking ethics

International Herald Tribune Editorial - U.S. Congress: Desperately seeking ethics
Copyright by International Herald Tribune
Published: December 11, 2006


Watching their elected leaders in action, it's not surprising that Americans wonder if there is any limit to the crass misbehavior that members of Congress are willing to tolerate from their colleagues to protect their privileges and hold on to their own jobs. The House ethics committee answered that question Friday with a resounding "No."

Sixty-four days after it promised to find out who knew about Representative Mark Foley's wildly inappropriate, sexually predatory behavior with teenage House pages, and why they failed to stop it, the bipartisan committee produced a report Friday that was a 91-page exercise in cowardice.

The report's authors were clearly more concerned about protecting the members of the House than the young men and women under their charge in the page program. And they made absolutely no effort to define the high standard of behavior that should be required of all members of Congress and their staffs.

The committee, which never heard from Foley, did not call for disciplinary action against current members of the House or their staffs. The committee said those who have already left, like Foley, were no longer its problem.

The panel's justification for inaction is a breathtaking exercise in sophistry: "the requirement that House members and staff act at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House does not mean that every error in judgment or failure to exercise greater oversight or diligence" is a violation.

No, not every error or failure should be a violation, but certainly the ones that lead to an elected official's sexually stalking teenage boys while his colleagues turn a blind eye or cover it up should be. We'd set the bar at least there. Apparently, it's too high for the House.