THIS DISORDERLY HOUSE SHOULD LEARN ITS LESSON

It is indeed a disorderly House, one that too often disgraces the people it is supposed to stand for and slights its momentous obligations. To their great credit, members of the U.S. House of Representatives did the right thing last week in voting to disclose the names of those who kited checks at their on-premises bank. Compounding this shame was the fact they did so kicking, screaming and conniving to the end. What are we to make of this assembly, which took months to acknowledge the national fuss it induced?

Most striking in the debate over practices at the House bank was the persistent haughtiness of representatives who still felt no serious infractions had occurred. In the closing hours of debate, congressmen still stood before their colleagues, and the nation, and argued that the House bank wasn't really a bank but a disbursement office ... as though that invested them with some privilege to draw from their account whatever dollar amount was desired. Up until the last day, leadership of the House was still practicing fast and loose spin control, until national outrage made the exercise too perilous. Find at least one silver lining: Congress is still capable of responding to the will of the American people, even if those people have to speak loudly to be heard.

Telling even today, with time having passed since the House vote supposedly resolved the matter, is the fact that rules were so loose at this bank, its elected clientele so undisciplined, that many auditors and lots of time would be required to put the whole sordid puzzle together. These are people in whose trust we have placed tax dollars. The country is a big job for persons who can't make their own house right.

What a blow this must be for the many congressmen who assume their jobs are a public trust, who do not claim all goodies within their reach as entitlements, who still believe they are sent to Washington as an extension of the people who elected them. Just as the good police officers of this nation were stained when a few rogue cops beat up Rodney King in Los Angeles, congressional members who take seriously the faith people place in them must slump a bit these days; they know they must combat not only the country's problems, but problems within their ranks.

Here is an irony that stands above all others. The key word of congressional employment "representative" is one that seems the most badly tarnished by this incident. The actions of the offending House members do not "represent" those of the people in their home districts, not the principled ones anyway. Constituents in those districts should make that message loud and clear, and demand explanations from the people who misused the privileges of their office.