Congress cuts its own throat

Checkgate is only the latest in a long list of scandals to hit Congress. Though many citizens are dismayed, none should be surprised.

Here is an institution that has become so insular and arrogant that it exempts itself from the laws and regulations they impose on the rest of us. Examples: minimum wage laws; civil rights laws; affirmative action requirements; prohibitions against age discrimination and sexual harassment; the ethics in government act; and many others.

Here is an institution that has used public money to create and administer special privileges -- including a subsidized bank (space and staff to run the bank were, after all, paid for by taxpayers), a generous retirement system and other costly privileges more akin to a House of Lords in an aristocracy than a house of the people in a democracy.

Here is an institution that raised members' pay to more than $120,000 a year at a time when its customers (the public) were hurting in a slumping economy and giving Congress its lowest approval rating in history.

Here is an institution that approved amendments permitting savings and loan executives to make millions of dollars on wildly speculative loans, guaranteed by the taxpayer, in exchange for political contributions from S&L political action committees. The cost of the S&L bailout is still driving up the federal deficit, the real cancer on the U.S. economy.

Here is more than a corrupt institution; here is a corrupt system. Tony Coehlo, the former House majority leader who was forced to resign in 1989, put it clearly as he tried to defend his actions in accepting highly favorable investment deals from a junk bond firm: "I'm not a corrupt person, but this is a corrupting system."

The refusal of members of Congress to take personal responsibility for their actions goes to the root of the problem.

What we need -- and may well get -- is a revolt of voters in November. Some speculate that as many as 100 members may lose their seats. But it would be unfortunate if higher-than-average turnover this year placated the public, weakening support for term limitations and other fundamental political reforms.

The constitutional objections to the most significant political reform since the enfranchisement of women passed a major barrier last week when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the very restrictive limits California voters placed on the terms of state elected officials. Petitions are now being circulated in several states to pass laws modeled after Colorado's that extends term limits to Congress.

Checkgate -- and especially what it reveals about how Congress manages its business -- removes once and for all the argument that term limits would deny Americans the wisdom and experience of career politicians, many of whom have spent nearly all their professional lives in Washington.

Lord Acton reminds us, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." What we are witnessing in Washington is the corruption of Congress by the system of PACs and perks that sustains incumbents and reduces accountability.

Congress needs the injection of new lawmakers and new leadership committed to political reform. Without fundamental political reform, political leaders will not make the bold decisions on education, entitlements, technology development and economic growth that are required for U.S. leadership and prosperity in the post-Cold War world.