Smart of them.

House Ethics Committee Chairman Mike Conaway said Thursday that his panel would undo its controversial decision to delete the requirement that lawmakers list free trips they receive on their annual disclosure reports.

“We will reverse that decision,” Conaway said during an appearance on a local radio talk show in his Texas district. “Heard first in Brownwood, Texas,” the Republican told listeners, one of whom provided a recording to National Journal.

National Journal first reported earlier this week that the Ethics Committee had quietly deleted the disclosure requirement behind closed doors and without any public announcement.

I understand that this was a bipartisan bit of idiocy – Ranking Member Linda Sanchez signed off on i…

:pause:

Linda Sanchez is the Ranking member for the House Ethics Committee?  This Linda Sanchez? The one who is on the Ethics Committee largely so that it’ll be convenient to find her? …and the Democrats wonder why they never seem to get any traction on some of this stuff.

Anyway, while this was a bipartisan bit of idiocy, it was idiocy nonetheless. One thing that many people seem determined to keep ignoring is that how something looks is a relevant issue in politics.  If you read the National Journal article you’ll see that the trips were, in fact, being disclosed elsewhere – but when you have as low an approval rating as Congress does it behooves you to not look like you have anything to hide. Even if you do.  Especially if you do, in fact. People are just simply not inclined to give Members of Congress the benefit of the doubt right now – and, frankly? There are good reasons for that.

(Image via Shutterstock)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Yeah, sure, life is not fair.  And Stalin is dead: this is news?