More and more, the Republican-controlled Congress and White House appear to have taken an old political adage and put a new twist on it that goes something like this: power corrupts, and absolute power is even better.

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With the House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay, facing a Texas indictment for money laundering and conspiracy charges, the Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, under SEC investigation for insider trading, and with both the President and vice president's key staff members looming large in a special prosecutor's investigation (not to mention lobbyist Jack Abramoff's questionable connections to many other low-level GOP House representatives and party officials), it is increasingly obvious that there is something rotten in the District of Columbia.

What is regrettable about this apparent critical mass of corruption is that this phemonenon is nothing new. It comes around every generation and, at times, with an almost startling predictability. Whenever one political party becomes firmly entrenched in power and no longer has to fear committee hearings, subpoenas, or criminal investigations into their behavior, trouble is sure to follow. For, despite both our Constitution's checks and balances and all the griping about 'gridlock', our country functions best (and most fairly) when the government's branches are split between the two major political parties.

This propensity toward political corruption isn't unique to any one ideology of party, however. In fact, if you turn back the clock less than two decades, you'll recall it was the Democrats, after 40 years of political control in Congress, who were engaging in their own soap opera of illegal and ethically self-destructive acts. In 1989, both the Democratic House Speaker, Jim Wright, and the House majority whip, Tony Coelho, resigned in disgrace after charges that they abused their lofty positions for personal, economic gain. Not long after that, four Democratic senators (and one Republican) were publicly admonished for improperly intervening in a federal investigation on behalf of one of their most generous campaign contributors, failed savings and loan tycoon Charles Keating. And don't forget the legendary Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Dan Rostenkowski, whose misuse of the House post office in the early 1990s not only led to his electoral defeat but to a mail fraud conviction and 17 months in prison as well.

It was this perception of an out-of-control Democratic Congress that prompted Republicans to craft their 'Contract with America' in 1994. Cast as a call for government accountability and transparency, the contract's appeal certainly played a role in sweeping the GOP to their majorities in both the House and Senate. But not long after winning the election, many of the same Republicans who railed over the Democrats' heavy-handed political tactics and power-hungry fund-raising, found themselves succumbing to the very same temptations.

But during their first six years of control, Congressional Republicans had a counterbalance in President Clinton, who vetoed the more extreme parts of their agenda. However, the past five years of the George W. Bush administration, where not one piece of legislation has been vetoed and political calculations color every policy decision, have allowed a new era of political hubris to arise. One where the limits on lobbyists' gifts and travel for politicians were raised tenfold, where late-night votes are held open for hours to allow for political strong-arming by the ruthless GOP leadership and where secret House-Senate conferences exclude Democratic members while packing bills full of legislative pork.

Not surprisingly, the Democrats are now starting to heavily trumpet a return to ethical standards as part of their 2006 platform. A worthwhile cause, but if voters just unilaterally sweep them into power, the cycle will just start over.

Or, as Yogi Berra might say, 'It's deja vu all over again.'

and members of Congress believe that if they judt give the money away that they took from Jack (Abramoff), then everything is back to 'normal' (whatever that is):

Lawmakers Giving Up Abramoff-Linked Funds
By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 6, 12:57 PM E

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President Bush and many lawmakers have announced they are refunding or giving to charity some or all of the donations they or their political action committees received from once-powerful lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his associates or clients.

Abramoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to three federal charges as part of an agreement with prosecutors requiring him to cooperate in a broad corruption investigation into members of Congress.

This week:

_President Bush, $6,000 from Abramoff, his wife and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan for the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign is being donated to the American Heart Association. Abramoff raised at least $100,000 for the campaign.

_House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. A spokesman would not say how much money Hastert received or planned to donate.

_House Majority Leader Roy Blunt, R-Mo., $8,500 to charity.

_Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, $15,000 to local charities in suburban Houston.

_Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., $2,000 to be returned to the Michigan Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.

_Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., $11,000 to the American Indian Center of Chicago and the American Indian Health Service of Chicago.

_Republican Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., $16,000.

Other Senate Republicans:

_Christopher Bond, R-Mo., $12,500 to the Salvation Army.

_Jim Bunning, R-Ky., $1,000 to the St. Elizabeth Medical Center inpatient hospice program.

_Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., $1,000 to the Georgia National Guard Family Support Foundation.

_Thad Cochran, R-Miss., $8,000 to the Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund.

_Norm Coleman, R-Minn., $3,000 to be refunded or for charity.

_Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., $1,000 to charity.

_Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., $1,000 to charity.

_Judd Gregg, R-N.H., $12,000 to Marguerites Place.

_Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., $5,000 refunded. Isakson also donated $4,000 to the Salvation Army in December.

_Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., $2,000 to be donated to medical research

_Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., refunding $4,000 to three Indian tribes.

_Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., $18,500 to the Wayside Christian Mission.

_Rick Santorum, R-Pa., $11,000 to multiple charities.

_Gordon Smith, R-Ore., $8,500 to be refunded or for charity.

_Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, $16,500 to charity. Stevens also donated $1,000 to the Alaska chapter of the Red Cross in December.

_John Sununu, R-N.H., $3,000 to charity.

_Jim Talent, R-Mo., $2,000 to be refunded. Talent also refunded $3,000 in August 2005.

_Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., $8,000 to victims of the 2005 tornado in Wright, Wyo.

_John Thune, R-S.D., $2,000 to White Buffalo Calf Woman Society.

_John W. Warner, R-Va., $1,000 to charity.

Senate Democrats:

_Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., $2,000 to charity.

_Tim Johnson, D-S.D., $8,250 to Billy Mills Running Strong for American Indian Youth.

_Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., $5,000 to the American Indian College Fund.

House Republicans:

_Rodney Alexander, R-La., $2,000 to charity.

_Dan Burton, R-Ind., $19,000 to charity.

_Dave Camp, R-Mich., $500 to charity.

_Chris Cannon, R-Utah, $2,000.

_Eric Cantor, R-Va., about $10,000 to the William Byrd Community House.

_Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., $250 to charity.

_Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., amount uncertain.

_Kay Granger, R-Texas, $2,000 to Boys and Girls Club of Greater Fort Worth.

_J. Randy Forbes, R-Va., $1,000 to charity.

_Melissa Hart, R-Pa., $2,000 to two women's shelters.

_J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., $2,250 to the Salvation Army Katrina Disaster Fund.

_Sam Johnson, R-Texas, $2,000 to the Dallas-Fort Worth USO.

_Walter Jones, R-N.C., $1,000 to the Salvation Army.

_Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., $2,000 to be returned to the Mississippi band of the Choctaw Indian Tribe.

_Jim McCrery, R-La., $35,000 to the Salvation Army.

_Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., $1,000 to Crossroads Safehouse.

_Bob Ney, R-Ohio, $9,000 to charity.

_Tom Petri, R-Wis., $11,000 to charity.

_Chip Pickering, R-Miss., at least $2,500 to the Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund.

_Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, $8,000 to charity.

_Hal Rogers, R-Ky., $32,000 to the UNITE Foundation.

_Paul Ryan, R-Wis., $949 to USO Operation Phone Home.

_Jim Saxton, R-N.J., $7,000 total refunded in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

_Bill Shuster, R-Pa., $1,000 to charity.

_John Sweeney, R-N.Y., $2,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

_Curt Weldon, R-Pa., $2,000 to charity.

_Jerry Weller, R-Ill., at least $500 to charity.

_Roger Wicker, R-Miss., $250 to Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund.

_Heather Wilson, R-N.M., $1,000 to the Great Southwest Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

House Democrats:

_Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, $500 to be returned to the Tigua Tribe of El Paso.

_Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., $1,500 total to be returned to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in California and the Michigan Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.

_Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., $1,000 to be returned to the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe.

_Lane Evans, D-Ill., $2,000 to Community Caring Conference.

_Tim Holden, D-Pa., $1,000 to an animal shelter.

_Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., $2,000 to be refunded.

_Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., $6,950 to be refunded.

_Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., $2,000 to charity.

December 2005:

_Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., $18,892 to seven tribal colleges.

_Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., $42,000 to charity.

_Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., about $150,000 donated to Native American charities and refunded.

_Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., $3,750 to North Dakota's tribal colleges.

_Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., $67,000 refunded.

_Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-N.J., $1,000 to the Center for Hope Hospice. Ferguson also donated $1,000 to the Children's Specialized Hospital Foundation in August 2005.

_Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., $6,000 to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

_Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., $19,900 refunded and given to charity.

August-November 2005

_Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., returned $1,000.

_Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, $1,000 to the American Indian College Fund.

_Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., $1,250 to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.

February 2002

_Sen. David Vitter, R-La., $6,000 refunded.