GOP pick inspires little confidence

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Selection of Rep. John Boehner of Ohio as House majority leader doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that Republicans in Congress have the will to enact necessary reform.

Assuredly Boehner was a better pick than Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who had been acting majority leader since Rep. Tom DeLay stepped down when he was indicted.

If the Republicans had chosen Blunt it would have been a clear signal that they wanted to continue business as usual despite the corruption that mushroomed while DeLay was in control.

But Blunt will continue to wield considerable authority in the No. 3 position as GOP whip.

This sort of jockeying around is hardly the housecleaning that ought to be in order in the wake of disclosures of how the public’s business has been conducted in Washington for the past few years.

Boehner’s own record includes acceptance of donations, parties and trips from Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest provider of student loans, as it lobbied Boehner’s Education Committee, the Washington Post reported.

Earlier in the week, House Republicans tried to whittle down reforms proposed by House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

They also refused to open other leadership positions — a course advocated by Rep. Lee Terry of Omaha on the grounds that Republicans needed to “get rid of all the DeLay folks.”

Hastert has proposed a lobbying reform package that would include a ban on privately funded trips for lawmakers, and limiting gifts to $20. Boehner, for example, called the ban on privately funded trips “childish.” Other representatives pushed for immediate disclosure of gifts, rather than placing a limit on value.

In reality both approaches — limits and disclosure – would be an improvement over the ethical vacuum that has prevailed the past few years.

But reform can’t stop there.

It’s crucial that Congress reform the way it does business. Congress needs to do away with letting conferees rewrite the final version of legislation in secret, and then rushing the bills through before anyone has a chance to study them.

Too often, surprises pop up on the final versions. Last year vaccine manufacturers won an expansion of liability protection. The provision was totally new. It had been in neither the House nor Senate versions.

Congress also needs to curb the practice of letting members insert earmark appropriations into bills. In a column in Thursday’s Journal Star David Broder touted a proposal that would let any member lodge an objection against an earmark, stalling the spending measure until it had been aired in public.

Congress set a record for earmarks last year, spending $27 billion in that fashion, a 19 percent increase over the year before.

Congress has a long road ahead of it before it achieves real reform. The selection of Boehner to the No. 2 spot in the House doesn’t generate much momentum.