Rich or bankrupt?

Pelosi shows disclosure rules are laughable

Publication: San Diego Union Tribune

Editoral
May 27, 2008

For a perfect example of how weak ethics rules still are for members of Congress and other high-ranking government officials, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 2007 financial disclosure statement can't be beat.

The San Francisco Democrat took advantage of the absurd rule that lets lawmakers disclose their net wealth within a vague range to say that she was worth anywhere from $86 million to being $9 million in debt.

So is she rolling in the dough or bound for personal bankruptcy? The public has no way to tell.

This isn't right. In the wake of a dizzying variety of congressional scandals - topped by the one that toppled a San Diego County congressman, Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham - lawmakers vowed to do a clean-up. Instead, we still have a Washington political culture that loves its loopholes.

No wonder the watchdog group that highlighted Pelosi's non-disclosure disclosure - The Sunlight Foundation - denounces the present system as "seriously flawed." We couldn't agree more. It's time for Congress to revise the 1978 Ethics in Government Act to require far more specificity on personal wealth from lawmakers - including (but perhaps especially) the most powerful lawmaker of all: the speaker of the House.

The irony with Pelosi, of course, is that soon after she was installed as speaker, she pledged to oversee the "most honest, ethical and open Congress in history." Instead, Pelosi has balked at some of the reforms adopted by the Senate and continued the tradition of her predecessor - Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois - of stocking the House ethics committee with lawmakers who are loath to rock the boat.

Too bad. We need more boat-rockers in Congress - and fewer people who think it's OK to hoodwink the public with the declaration that they are either extraordinarily wealthy or headed for homelessness.