Congressmen and -women sometimes act as if they didn't know the first thing about government ethics. Even when their actions are more in the public eye than usual, many of them unnecessarily, and selfishly, do the wrong thing.

This week, Congress seems to be all about Roger Clemens, who is definitely of more interest than health care, the economy, or Iraq. And what did 25 of the 40 members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform do before providing oversight over...

Detroit’s mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick is the new poster boy for misuse of office, lack of transparency, and covering up unethical behavior.

According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, it all began with an extramarital affair with his chief of staff, which he denied time and again (including on the witness stand), but finally admits to after...

An op-ed piece by Pollster.com editor Mark Blumenthal, in yesterday’s New York Times, brought up an interesting point about the transparency of political polls. I would like to take his piece a step further.

Blumenthal feels that political polls provide too little background information, such as whether live or recorded interviewers were used, or the...

An Alaskan state representative needs a new kidney. The new state ethics law does not allow gifts over $250. It has a compassionate gift exemption, but it only allows compassionate gifts with a fair market value less than $250. This is one of many unforeseen consequences that comes from ethics codes (or any legislation, for that matter).

So the state legislature is rushing through a bill to change...

You hear it again and again: “I didn’t know. I wasn’t told.” It’s the ultimate defense. Rarely do you hear, “I didn’t know, but I should have. It’s my responsibility to know and make sure I’m told things like this. I will act as if I knew, because I should have known.”

There’s nothing wrong with a conflict of interest. When you learn about one, you discuss it openly and deal with it responsibly. When you learn that someone knew and didn’t deal with it, and then denied knowing, then it...

According to an article in the Muncie (IN) Star Press, the Muncie City Council voted 5-4 not to adopt the American Society for Public Administration’s ethics code, something that hundreds of citizens at the meeting favored.

Apparently, the one non-Council member who spoke out against voting for the code was the City Attorney, who “worried the proposed code of ethics was geared...