Congressional Ethics Quotes

What's troubling is that the Republicans to defend Mr. DeLay are weakening the ethics process.

I filed the ethics complaint against Tom DeLay not because I'm a Democrat and he's a Republican or even because he drew me out of my congressional seat but because he engaged in corruption to further his plans to disenfranchise voters in Texas.

The Senate is no longer a place for any decent man. I am truly sick of Congress.

The Congressional Ethics Committees are the brothers and sisters of member of Congress and no one wants to investigate their brothers and sisters.

No one outside of the Black Caucus would be happy to see Alcee Hastings in a chairmanship. I first saw Alcee Hastings in his impeachment trial in the Senate.

In a Congressional ethics investigation of members there is a conflict of interest…in a sense, the norms and practices of the institution are on trial.

Yesterday Gary Condit spent the whole day attending an agricultural meeting. Boy, that's when you know a congressman's in real trouble: when he spends the whole day actually working.

Honorariums are really dishonorariums. So long as they continue, public trust in Congress will sink even below its minimal level today.... Public officials should have only one paymaster: the Government. When the Government pays too little, the temptation to find other paymasters becomes far harder to resist.

Fellow senators balked at punishing Senator Alfonse D'Amato of New York though he was caught in a series of transactions that earned him the label "Senator Sleaze." D'Amato explained their reluctance as he defended his own behavior. "There but for the grace of God go most of my colleagues," he said.

The Constitution reflects in the most degrading and mortifying manner on the virtue, integrity, and wisdom of the state legislatures; it presupposes that the chosen few who go to Congress will have more upright hearts, and more enlightened minds, than those who are members of individual [state] legislatures.

The Office of Congressional Ethics was created to provide more transparency in the House of Representatives. It was a commendable goal.

Dan Moldea, the lead investigator for Larry Flynt's ongoing quest to uncover sexual indiscretions of Republican congressional members, has now admitted he was hired by the law firm defending President Clinton.

Charlie Rangel was writing laws on our taxes as chair of the Ways and Means Committee while somehow neglecting to pay his own.

President Obama signed a bill preventing members of Congress from profiting from insider trading. Didn't you think that was already illegal?

Our Congresses consist of Christians. In their private life they are true to every obligation of honor; yet in every session they violate them all, and do it without shame. Because honor to party is above honor to themselves.

It is unacceptable that a senator or a representative in the American House of Representatives assist Afghanistan during the war and meet with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders, express his support for their war against the U.S., and be allowed to return to serve in Congress.

Former Congressman Aaron Schock was applauded for his fitness when he flaunted his six pack on the cover of 'Men's Health.' Using his sweet pecs didn't end his career, although using taxpayer money to lavishly decorate his office did.

Here is your government at work. A congressman from Colorado said he wants to draft a rule that would make it unethical to have a sexual relationship with an intern. Only Congress would need a rule to tell them cheating on their wives is not ethical. Don't we have that rule? I believe it's called the Sixth Commandment.

Our job in Congress is to serve the American people, and not enrich ourselves with special taxpayer-funded benefits.

So often the seeds of a Congressional ethics scandal are sown by the reforms of the last ethics scandal.

The theory is that election to Congress is tantamount to being dispatched to Washington on a looting raid for the enrichment of your state or district, and no other ethic need inhibit the feeding frenzy.

There is a kind of innate conflict of interest when members of congressional ethics committees are called upon to judge their colleagues.

The Republican base - the Evangelical get-out-the-vote troops - are going to be devastated when they discover how many closeted gay Republicans were involved in policing Mark Foley in the House of Representatives.

By ending congressional taxpayer-funded pensions, we will take one more step toward draining the swamp in Washington.

It's really beneath the office of a member of Congress to say something that outrageous. The fact that she was once the Speaker is mind-numbing, honestly... mind-numbingly stupid.