While they were debating the just-passed financial reform bill on the floor of Congress, eight members of Congress walked out of the Capitol into fundraising meetings and events where they solicited and received contributions from the very financial institutions that the bill would regulate. Some of the contributions came as crucial votes were taken.  From a New York Times report:

“For example, on Dec. 10, one of the lawmakers under investigation, Representative Joseph Crowley, a New York Democrat who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, left the Capitol during the House debate to attend a fund-raising event for him hosted by a lobbyist at her nearby Capitol Hill town house that featured financial firms, along with other donors. After collecting thousands of dollars in checks, Mr. Crowley returned to the floor of the House just in time to vote against a series of amendments that would have imposed tougher restrictions on Wall Street.

That same day, Representative Tom Price, a Georgia Republican on the Financial Services Committee, scheduled what he called a “Financial Services Luncheon” at the Capitol Hill Club, as part of a fund-raising push that netted him nearly $23,000 in contributions from the industry in a two-month period around the vote.

Does this sound fishy to you? Well, you just don’t understand politics then: it is as pure as the driven snow, according to the money-grubbing Representatives. This practice has been going on for a long, long time, even before Tom DeLay began using it. After all, what better time to raise cash from an interested party than right before you’re going to vote on his interests? According to the Times story, the practice is indeed business as usual, and members of Congress have vigorously opposed efforts to stop it.

In a humorous, stunning, and sad sentence in the Times article, we read this:

“Some lawyers advise politicians to forgo fund-raising events in the midst of debates to avoid an appearance problem.”

Appearance problem? What appearance problem? Who would ever think that there is anything the least bit corrupt about accepting money from Goldman Sachs while your fellow members of Congress are debating whether to regulate its financial dealings, then going back and voting against the regulations Goldman Sachs opposed?

Boy—some people are so darned suspicious!

Sarcasm aside, here are the relevant provisions of the ethics code for the House of Representatives, and the ethics rules for government service:

From the House Code of Official Conduct:

1. A Member, officer, or employee of the House of Representatives shall conduct himself at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.

2. A Member, officer, or employee of the House of Representatives shall adhere to the spirit and the letter of the Rules of the House of Representatives and to the rules of duly constituted committees thereof.

3. A Member, officer, or employee of the House of Representatives shall receive no compensation nor shall he permit any compensation to accrue to his beneficial interest from any source, the receipt of which would occur by virtue of influence improperly exerted from his position in the Congress…

From the Code of Ethics for Government Service (Tenets 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, and 10):

Any person in Government service should:

1. Put loyalty to the highest moral principals and to country above loyalty to Government persons, party, or department.

2. Uphold the Constitution, laws, and legal regulations of the United States and of all governments therein and never be a party to their evasions….

5. Never discriminate unfairly by the dispensing of special favors or privileges to anyone, whether for remuneration or not; and never accept for himself or his family, favors or benefits under circumstances which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of his governmental duties.

6. Make no private promises of any kind binding upon the duties of office, since a Government employee has no private word which can be binding on public duty…

9. Expose corruption wherever discovered.

10. Uphold these principles, ever conscious that public office is a public trust.

There is no way the practice of fundraising during Congressional votes can be viewed as meeting these standards. It is corrupt, and it appears corrupt. No government body of integrity that has proper regard for the public trust would permit it.