Glass houses : congressional ethics and the politics of venom / Susan J. Tolchin and Martin Tolchin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tolchin, Susan J.

Contributor:

Tolchin, Martin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Congress--Ethics.

United States.

United States. Congress.

Ethics.

Physical Description:

xiii, 202 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 2001.

Summary:

Newt Gingrich, the Ghengis Khan of recent American politics, wrenched the humdrum congressional ethics process out of its lethargy and turned it into an offensive tool for partisan gain. Now, instead of yawning, lawmakers quake at the thought of an ethics inquiry that can easily, often unfairly, tip elections and ruin careers.

While members of the House and Senate confront the public's changing attitudes toward money, sex, and power, they are also forced to raise ever-escalating sums to finance their campaigns. Practices tolerated a decade ago now may cost lawmakers their seats or land them in jail. Lawmakers often don't know if they live in Salem or Gomorrah.

Using new information culled from dozens of Capitol Hill interviews, Sue and Marty Tolchin show how ethics in Washington have changed over two centuries while offering new interpretations of past ethics cases. The first book to analyze the politicization of the ethics process, Glass Houses reveals in wicked and telling detail the forces that drive the modern lawmaker into a maelstrom of fierce corruption battles.

Contents:

1 The Ethics Wars 1

The Gingrich Era 1

Partisan Politics 9

Recent Battles 10

Changing Mores 11

Discretionary Justice and the Ethics Committees 13

The Future of Ethics 15

Bookends to an Era 18

2 The Apple and Other Temptations 21

In the Beginning 21

Expulsion 26

An Eye for an Eye 27

Let Those Without Sin ... 30

Leaving the Garden of Eden 32

3 Joe McCarthy and the Ethics Process 35

The Reluctant Senate 35

Powell, Baker, and the Evolution of the Ethics Process 41

The Birth and Baptism of the Ethics Committees 44

4 Abscam and the "Keating Five" 49

Abscam 49

The "Keating Five" 51

Corruption or Constituent Service 52

How Politics Prevailed 58

5 The New Rules of the Ethics Wars 61

"Mr. Sam" 61

"If You Go After a King, Kill Him" 62

Power No Longer Protects 66

Pay Raises Cost Votes 68

Anger and the Decline in Public Confidence 69

Absent Public Wrath, Congress Will Avoid Ethical Tangles 71

6 Sex

The Sin of Hypocrisy 77

The Packwood Case 85

The Charges 90

The Process 93

The Committee's Position 98

Grains of Truth 99

7 Torricelli, the CIA, and the Intelligence Committee 101

The CIA and Congressional Ethics 107

Torricelli and Nuccio 110

The Ends and the Means 111

8 Forgery

The Case of the Purloined Stationery 115

9 The Noble Lie

Modern Ethical Dilemmas 125

The Nethercutt Ads 128

"Noble Lies" 132

When Lying Fails 136

The Future of Lies 141

10 The Politics of Venom 143

Appendix A Summary of U.S. Senate Sanctions 155

Appendix B Summary of Expulsion, Censure, Reprimand, and Ethics Procedures in the House of Representatives, 1798-1999 159.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-191) and index.

ISBN:

0813367603

OCLC:

46882861