Representative No. 1: Guilty

Meanwhile, Congress doesn't even fiddle with lobbying reform.

HOW SORDID does it have to get before Congress does something to tighten the rules governing lobbyists and lawmakers, all-expenses-paid trips, and lavish dinners? Former representative Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), once a leader in the Republican hierarchy, pleaded guilty yesterday to selling his office in exchange for golf trips and gambling junkets, marking another milestone in a year of congressional disgrace. Yet lawmakers are poised to go home and explain to voters how they failed to act despite vows earlier in the year to fix the badly broken system.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a fig leaf of a change in earmarking rules that will simply require lawmakers, in some cases, to attach their names to special-interest projects that they sponsor. We'll offer a more detailed analysis of this faux reform another time, but the most disturbing point is this: Apparently, that's it for lobbying reform this session. There will be no action to limit the free trips that lawmakers and staff members can take, beef up the broken system of ethics enforcement, slow the revolving door between public service and K Street riches, or improve disclosure of lobbying activities.

It was striking, then, that yesterday, the day after the House's non-action action, the court documents were replete with disgusting details about the rapaciously unethical behavior of Mr. Ney and his staff -- scooping up thousands of dollars in free gambling chips from a Syrian-born arms merchant nicknamed "The Fat Man," who was seeking the congressman's help to sell airplanes and obtain a visa; Mr. Ney

having a staffer carry back $5,000 worth of British pounds from a London gambling junket to hide his winnings from U.S. Customs officials; Mr. Ney taking thousands of dollars in free meals and skybox tickets from lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

In return, Mr. Ney inserted amendments into legislation to help the clients of those who helped the congressman. In his role as chairman of the House Administration Committee, he issued a multimillion-dollar wireless telephone contract to one of Mr. Abramoff's clients. He lobbied executive branch officials at the behest of Mr. Abramoff and his other benefactors.

The tightest lobbying rules in the world can't halt a lawmaker bent on corruption. Mr. Ney lied on his financial disclosure forms, his travel forms and his customs reports. He knowingly helped his former chief of staff violate the one-year prohibition against lobbying former colleagues -- not only encouraging the former staff member, Neil G. Volz, to violate the lobbying ban but also helping Mr. Volz set up a client list even before he left Mr. Ney's staff.

Still, a combination of tighter rules, increased disclosure and more-effective enforcement could help deter and detect criminality on the grand scale practiced by Mr. Ney. It could lessen the small-bore, run-of-the-mill corruption that has become a seamy fact of life in the halls of the Capitol. But that won't happen. At least not from this Congress.