Ethics

A listing of ethics and criminal cases involving members might make some people wonder whether Mark Twain was right when he joked that “there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”

The Constitution gives Congress the power and responsibility to police itself. This is no easy task, as the record of the 1980s, 1990s, and the early years of the twenty-first century reveals.

For the first time in history, a Speaker of the House—Republican Newt Gingrich of Georgia—was formally reprimanded and another Speaker—Democrat Jim Wright of Texas—was forced by scandal to resign in midterm, both after investigations into their financial affairs. In 2005, the Republican majority leader in the House, Tom DeLay of Texas, became caught up in a larger scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff that ended the careers of several Republicans, including DeLay, who resigned his seat in 2006.

Six House members and one senator were convicted in a bribery scheme known as the Abscam scandal in 1980; one was expelled from Congress and the others were defeated or resigned. Five senators were investigated in the Keating Five scandal in the late 1980s for allegations that they [Page 202]had improperly intervened against federal regulators on behalf of a campaign contributor; four were rebuked and the fifth was reprimanded. Hundreds of House members got caught up in a 1991 House bank scandal for writing bad checks. A House member convicted of criminal charges was expelled from Congress. Other members have been censured, denounced, reprimanded, rebuked, and investigated for a variety of misdeeds.