According to the honor among thieves, these guys didn't violate Senate "ethics" rules

http://tinyurl.com/nbkadw
It used to be that Bill Clinton, when charged with unethical behavior, would claim that he "had done nothing ILLEGAL." Now we see that the lawyer-politicians have redefined the subclass of "Senatorial ethics" to mean almost anything is permitted for a Senator. There was, however, an admonition not to give the public perception that they had done what they, in fact, did.
To be sure, ethics (more properly ethos) has always been less universal than "morality" and has very different interpretations and meanings for different groups. For example, "legal ethics" has always been somewhat specialized, authorizing lawyers to lie in public on behalf of their clients and to seek loopholes in an agreement immediately after it is mutually agreed upon by the respective parties.A divorce lawyer in Chicago, factually accused by his clients of extorting sexual favors from them, defended himself before the bar inquiry by noting that the Code of Professional Conduct didn't prohibit such behavior, In a kidnapping-murder case, attorneys for the defendant engaged in plea bargain negotiations with the prosecutor to exchange knowledge of the burial site for a lessened sentence only to go to trial and enter a plea of "not guilty." Although the divorce lawyer ultimately got a wrist slap in Chicago, the defense attorneys actually did not misbehave according to the Canon.