Democrats Plan Series of Votes on Ethics Reforms

WaPo reported Despite divisions among Democrats over how far to go in revising ethics rules, House leaders plan a major rollout of an ethics reform bill early next year to demonstrate concern about an issue that helped defeat the Republicans in the midterm elections. But they will do it with a twist: Instead of forwarding one big bill, Democrats will put together an ethics package on the House floor piece by piece, allowing incoming freshmen to take charge of high-profile issues and lengthening the time spent on the debate. The approach will ensure that each proposal -- including banning gifts, meals and travel from lobbyists as well as imposing new controls on the budget deficit -- is debated on its own and receives its own vote.

That way Democrats can vote for several items, and safely vote against others, and if they arrange things properly they can defeat everything, while claiming they voted for the reform. If you really believe in Ethics Reform, put it in one big bill. If someone wants to kill part of it, let them move to take it out, and get a recorded vote on that.

That should garner far more media attention for the bill's components before a final vote on the entire package.