Is Your Member of Congress Corrupt??

Sen. David Vitter (LA)
allegedly bribed the
Secretary of the Interior

It's no surprise that most Americans have a low opinion of the members of Congress.

In fact, Gallup's most recent Honest and Ethics survey of professionals found that congressional representatives and senators rank third from the bottom above car salespersons and congressional lobbyists.

Congress has a glaring perception problem and another survey released last week makes it even worse.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) just released its annual list of the 19 most corrupt members of Congress. You can access the entire report by clicking here that goes into details but here's the list of corrupt congressional members identified by CREW in no particular order:

• Charles Bass (R-NH)
• Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
• Stephen Fincher (R-TN)
• Michael Grimm (R-NY)
• Frank Guinta (R-NH)
• Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
• Nick Rahall (D-WV)
• Laura Richardson (D-CA)
• David Rivera (R-FL)
• Hal Rogers (R-KY)
• Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
• Joe Walsh (R-IL)
• Maxine Waters (D-CA)
• David Vitter (R-LA)
• Joe Barton (R-TX)
• Shelley Berkley (D-NV)
• Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
• Jeff Denham (R-CA) 
• Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)

In the press release that CREW issued surrounding this report, they highlighted a few shocking examples. For instance, Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) is under investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies, and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) made the list for allegedly trying to bribe Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and using taxpayer money to help a staffer tend to criminal court matters.

On the Democratic side, the FBI seems to be looking at Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) for accepting gifts from campaign donors and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) made the list for letting his lobbyist sister trade on his name.

While there are 435 members of Congress and these 19 represent four percent - that's simply unacceptable.

Question: Is your congressional representative/senator listed above? What should congressional leadership do to enforce its own ethics policies?