The Politico reports that even when it appears to be against their fundraising interests, the Democrats felt pressured last week to live up to their anti-corruption pledge that swept them into the office in the last election.

"The most important thing for our new members is to be able to go back to their constituents and say they were part of changing the direction in Washington, and that includes holding Congress accountable and holding members accountable," Rep. Van Hollen, DCCC chairman said.

Jeanne Cummings concludes her column by saying:

The goal is create enough transparency to discourage bad behavior.

To that end, the new disclosure rules do significantly increase the tools that political opponents, government investigators, reform groups and the news media can use to monitor the links between lawmakers and lobbyists.

They also considerably boost the odds that one of them will stumble across the signs of mischief.