Why do members of Congress cheat? For the reason Bill Clinton gave: because they can!

Democrats' Election Hopes Fade as Scandals MountSaturday, 31 Jul
WASHINGTON – A second House Democrat, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, could face an ethics trial this fall, further complicating the election outlook for the party as it battles to retain its majority.
...the allegations could be announced next week. The House ethics committee declined Friday to make any public statement on the matter. Waters, 71, has been under investigation for a possible conflict of interest involving a bank that was seeking federal aid. Her husband owned stock in the bank and had served on its board.
New York Democrat Rep. Charles Rangel also faces an ethics trial this fall on charges that include failure to disclose assets and income, nonpayment of taxes and doing legislative favors for donors to a college center named after him.
Both Waters and Rangel are prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the trials would be an embarrassment for the group. Dual ethics trials would also be a major political liability for Democrats, forcing them to defend their party's ethical conduct while trying to hold on to their House majority.
While Rangel is a former chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Waters is a prominent member of the House Financial Services Committee.
Waters came under scrutiny after former Treasury Department officials said she helped arrange a meeting between regulators and executives at Boston-based OneUnited Bank without mentioning her husband's financial ties to the institution.Her husband, Sidney Williams, held at least $250,000 in the bank's stock and previously had served on its board. Waters' spokesman has said Williams was no longer on the board when the meeting was arranged.
Waters has said the National Bankers Association, a trade group, requested the meeting. She defended her role in assisting minority-owned banks in the midst of the nation's financial meltdown and dismissed suggestions she used her influence to steer government aid to the bank."I am confident that as the investigation moves forward the panel will discover that there are no facts to support allegations that I have acted improperly," Waters said in a prior statement.
The committee unanimously voted to establish an investigative subcommittee to gather evidence and determine whether Waters violated standards of conduct.
Waters, like Rangel, could settle her case by arranging a plea bargain with the ethics committee. So far she has decided instead to fight.//
***Jan Schakowsky (D, IL) is accused of trying to help South Shore Bank because "it helps sub-prime lenders." Actually, it got into trouble for lending to a high-end condo developer, Also, when Schakowsky's husband, Robert Creamer, was involved in the check-kiting scheme which sent him to Federal prison, South Shore stepped in as a bank willing to accept his checks. Alexi Giannoullias's family bank just went bust at a cost to the taxpayers of $250Million. Previously, Giannoullias used is putative record at the family bank as experience to justify his running for Illinois Treasurer, a post he won. However, now that it turns out that his family bank was heavily involved with a Chicago crime family, Giannoullias all of a sudden retrosepctively is claimed to have had minimal involvement with the running of the ban. Being involved with the Illinois Fisc at a time of a terrible mess is no endorsement for the Senate or any other place outside of jail but Alexi compounds his record with statements that cannot both be correct. They could, however, both be false: his experience might have been worthless relevant to his functioning as State Treasurer but he might also have been involved in the transactions with the crime family and shoddy banking practices( which may or may not be the direct cause of the bank's failure.)****
"Waters chooses ethics trial" (Politico)
...The Waters case also presents a test of the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent body that take complaints from the public and chooses which ones to forward to the House ethics committee. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have complained that the OCE has unfairly and disportionately target them, and many have signed onto a legislative effort to de-fang the office." ****Perhaps the Black Caucus should worry about the disportionate corruption in its ranks. John Conyers' wife was convicted of bribery; William Jefferson was caught with $90,000 in his refrigerator, Alcee Hastings was impeached, convicted and cashiered as a Federal Judge but he re-surfaced as a Congressional member of the Black Caucus. ****
http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2009/dec/judicial-watch-announces-list-washington-s-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2009
http://tinyurl.com/ybn5a7h
Judicial Watch's Ten Most Corrupt Politicians of 2009 (in alphabetical order):
1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)...
2. Senator John Ensign (R-NV)...
3. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)...
4. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner...
5. Attorney General Eric Holder...
6. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)/ Senator Roland Burris (D-IL)...
7. President Barack Obama...
8. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)...
9. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)...Murtha is not alone. As many as six other Members of Congress are currently under scrutiny according to The Washington Post....
10. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)...
That's only the top ten, and for 2009. (Dodd is a perennial, of course.)