Congress Does Right

(CBS)  Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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I know you'll find this shocking but I am about to say something nice about the Congress.

I mean it.

Congress has actually done some pretty decent stuff lately &#$0151; the House has put itself on a five-day work week. With holidays, they haven't actually worked five days in a row yet, but they've been around the Capitol more than usual. That's important because it means they may even get to know each other.

Working their Wednesday-Thursday schedule in recent years so they could rush home to attend more fundraisers has left Congress a collection of strangers, one reason the debates have become so nasty — and so unproductive.

Equally important, both houses have finally gotten serious about ethics reform.

Mind you, it has taken a slew of indictments and jail terms — on Friday former Ohio Congressman Bob Ney became the latest to head for the hoosegow — but the new rules the House approved and the legislation the Senate passed Friday amount to the toughest reforms since Watergate.

The reforms ban gifts and travel paid for by lobbyists, bar senators' spouses from lobbying, take away pensions of members of Congress convicted of serious crimes, and require public disclosure of who is involved when those secret projects called earmarks are slipped into appropriation bills.

What is breathtaking is not so much that these things have been outlawed, but that they were ever allowed in the first place.

To be sure, there are still some loopholes to be closed, but at least this is a start. How long has it been since we could say even that?

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E-mail Face the Nation.
By Bob Schieffer

[itgranny]

I'm having a hard time here and could really use some enlightening. We keep hearing about Jefferson and the money in the freezer, Pelosi with the starkist, Kerry swiftboated, H. Clinton and a whole host of things from illegal land deals to stealing the whitehouse silver. Millions and millions of dollars have been spent trying to catch these folks on something and the only thing they could catch them on was B. Clinton getting some then lieing about it (questioning that shouldn't have been up to congress to ask anyhow). Wouldn't you think that with all the effort that's been put towards catching these folks in some sort of scandal, they'd be in jail?

[fascistusa]

THE DEMOCRACTS HAVE DONE NOTHING.

A FASCIST REGIME STILL RULES AMERICA.

WE ARE STILL IN IRAQ.

DON'T LOOK TO POLITICIANS TO RESOLVE ANYTHING.

LOOK FORWARD TO ARMED CONFLICT IN AMERICA AGAIN.

[getcentered]

HELLO!
The Democrats have only been in power for 22 days........

and in that time they have done more meaningful things for the American people then the Republicans did in the last 12 YEARS in power.

Being a Republican doesn't mean much these days anyways. All sense of what it means to be Republican has been lost or destroyed by Karl Rove talking points about "patriotism" and "support the troops", or how about "protecting the innocent"?

Protect innocence?
NO ONE from the GOP can say anything about protecting innocence with any credibility, especially with the lives of 100,000+ innocent DEAD Iraqi civilians on their shoulders.

For those who would compare GW Bush's and B. Clintons use of the military see the above statistic regarding deaths.

What happened to the fiscal responsibility and small government mantras the GOP used to tout?

Speaking of fiscal responsibility, did you know that the war in Iraq has cost us, the American people, enough to buy gas for every US driver for an entire year, or how about 700 schools for every state!!?

[roger_inkart]

Comment: There are as many corrupt Dems as there are Repubs.

That is totally false.

[tibu987]

Ok Dems. Time to get rid of William "money in the freezer" Jefferson.
And why have the Feds not pursued this felony?
Let's all remember that corruption does not recognize political affiliation. There are as many corrupt Dems as there are Repubs.
Let's all do our best to rid Washington of all the slimeballs.
We voted for change and it is change "for the better" that we want.

[garyws1]

you gotta love the straight talk that Bob does...so many people in the media have forgotten or never learned how to do just that...or how important it is to be able to do that as a commentator...

[kpokey]

Give the DEMS 5 days in Congress and they get more done for the people than the Republicans did in the last 6 years. GO DEMS!

[ademeyer]

lieberman18:

Glad you mentioned the wars Clinton fought and WON as President. How many American soldiers lost in the Serbian conflict? What was that? None? How did it turn out removing Slobodan? O, peace broke out, justice was served, America's standing raised in the world? Hmmmm...what are you doing, paving the way for a Hillary Presidency?

[luvny-2009]

I got it...lieberman18...the 18 is their IQ
lieberman18 I'm sorry you are so bitter that you can not even see what's happening here. You have to go backwards and find something to make yourself feel better and justify your totally moron statements. Grow up we need to get our Country fixed and fast. You are so full of hate for anyone not backing Bush that you've become a sick person.

[observantx]

I would like to point out that this is all well and good, but it%u2019s only a fraction of the problem. A few dinners and golf outings are loose change compared to the torrent of campaign cash that is being stuffed in every Congressman%u2019s pockets by lobbyists.

We need to turn the money spigot off and weld it shut to have a chance of restoring our government to any resemblance of what our Founding Fathers envisioned. That means public financing of campaigns. Everyone needs to chip in $10 on their Form 1040 and save themselves a thousand times that in waste and fraud and earmark pork. Let%u2019s have no illusions here; campaign cash from lobbyists buys votes.

Without the hundreds of thousands of dollars our congressional and presidential candidates will have to spend much less time campaigning and raising cash for campaigning. More time will be spent on actually representing the people in their districts. I%u2019m talking drastic reform here. No 527 groups, no bogus %u201Cissue ads%u201D, and no barrages of misleading ads for weeks on end. Each candidate gets the same amount of public financing to run. No private cash or contributed cash allowed.

It%u2019s the only way to bring the Congress and the White House to heel and make them public servants again instead of a bloated privileged class.