First up: the Philadelphia Daily News leans on the Democrats to come clean and push for reform in the wake of allegations against both Rep. William Jefferson and Sen. Harry Reid, arguing that now that both parties have incentive to give the system a "massive overhaul." The Hartford Courant meanwhile laments the "partisan one-upmanship" between Democrats and Republicans over who is the more corrupt, calling it a "distraction from a larger point." Missed opportunities to make changes to Washington culture (i.e. the toothless lobbying reform bill) are what the Republicans, as the party in control of Congress, should really answer for. Finally, Scott Harshbarger and Goutam U. Jois at The Boston Globe explore the recent Enron verdicts, the Cunningham scandal and the unfolding web of Jack Abramoff's influence-peddling to point at a system biased towards creating opportunties for corrupt activity. They recommend a number of reforms, among them public financing of elections.
