More Opinions Columnists

• V.B. Price: Preserving our water is greatest challenge the city, state faces
• Jeffry Gardner: End of The Trib is part of the demise of serious journalism
• Katherine Augustine: Time with friends from Japan provides treasured memories

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Albuquerque Old Town
• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

What a difference a few months make.

Last November, Rep. Heather Wilson was victorious in her re-election campaign, in part by persuading voters that she was the more ethical of the two candidates for Congress. Her hard-hitting, last-minute attack ads painted her opponent, former Attorney General Patricia Madrid, as someone who didn't take political corruption seriously.

Now Wilson is in the uncomfortable position of defending herself, for calling former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to inquire about, and allegedly try to expedite, an ongoing federal public-corruption investigation. Apparently, members of Congress calling about ongoing federal investigations is not only frowned upon, it is an ethical no-no.

Does anyone else see the irony here - a congresswoman violating House ethics rules by inquiring about a public corruption case?

Over the last year, Rep. Mark Foley resigned in disgrace over his inappropriate contact with congressional pages. Former Rep. Duke Cunningham was sentenced to 10 years for his role in a bribery scandal. Former Rep. and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay left Congress under indictment for violating campaign finance laws. And most recently, former White House staffer Scooter Libby was found guilty on four of five counts of perjury and is looking at serving most of the rest of his life in a federal clink.

Many of us wished Madrid had reminded viewers in the last decisive debate in the campaign that Wilson was connected to several ethics scandals - including Cunningham's, Foley's and DeLay's. She received contributions from Cunningham and DeLay. She sat on the committee that was supposed to oversee the pages. Yet, in last year's race, Wilson was strident about her strong ethics, compared to her opponent. And she won.

Meanwhile, back here in New Mexico, former State Treasurer Robert Vigil got three years in the pokey for accepting bribes. Angelo Garcia, the political operative and bag-man in the Vigil case, got 10 years.

The momentum generated by the Vigil scandal looked as if it might start some real reforms in the state capitol. Fat chance. Most ethics bills are stuck in Senate committees, and with less than two weeks left in the session, if they are not dead, they will at best be watered down.

The mainstream media, to their credit, have paid close attention to the state ethics-reform proposals and their lack of movement. However, it is less clear whether the public really cares.

With all of the federal and state brouhahas, are voters getting scandal fatigue? Have voters become desensitized to public corruption? Or do they think that corruption is just part of politics?

Increased apathy among young people, lower voter turnout and increased influence of large special interests suggest that maybe people just don't care about ethics reform.

Next year Wilson, Sen. Pete Domenici and all members of the state House and Senate are up for reelection. How they all fare will be a good test of what voters really think of public corruption and how much time our elected leaders should spend trying to fix our political system.