If its members still wonder why the public continues to have a low opinion of Congress, we have a suggestion:
The lawmakers should just take a close look at the many ways they keep telling the rest of the country to do as they say, not as they do.The latest manifestation of this double standard was on display during the recent fight over the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. During the long examination of sexual harassment charges, the many senators who deplored the practice somehow managed to overlook an embarrassing point:
When it enacted federal laws against sexual discrimination, Congress specifically exempted itself from them.
That shouldn't surprise anyone, since Congress has a long record of putting itself above the laws it imposes on others. Among the laws that Congress declined to apply to itself are those on civil rights, the minimum wage, Social Security, safety in the work place, age discrimination, equal pay, privacy, and the Freedom of Information Act.
This sorry record, as Scripps Howard News Service recently put it, reflects "a royalist conceit, more suited to a king and his courtiers than representatives within a democratic government."
If Congress won't treat itself as it treats others, the White House should start vetoing new bills in which the lawmakers provide themselves with special exemptions.
Meanwhile, the present double standard provides more ammunition to those seeking to impose sharp limits on how long anyone may serve in Congress.