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Washington Corruption Probe

House banking scandal
The more recent significant corruption scandals have centered on abuses of power, as opposed to the bribery, influence-peddling controversies of the past.

In 1992, many House members were suspected of bouncing checks from accounts they held at the so-called "House Bank" -- a loose operation that allowed member of Congress to cash their checks but kept shoddy records and often were quite delayed in recording deposits or withdrawals.

Although the lawmakers had broken no laws and many did not even know they were bouncing checks, several took advantage of the bank system and many voters viewed the scandal as a blatant abuse of power.

Of the 296 sitting representatives and 59 former members who had overdrafted their personal accounts in the preceding 39 months, the House Ethics Committee released a list of the 24 worst abusers. Twenty were Democrats, although Republican Rep. Tommy Robinson of Arkansas was the worse offender, with 996 overdrafts.

Congressional Democrats attempted to explain that the scandal was a problem with the banking system, not their party.

Conservative columnist David Gergen said on the NewsHour at the time, "[The Democrats] let it get out of control. That's the critical charge against the Democrats. When you're in power too long, you become arrogant."

Republican leaders used the scandal to accuse all Democrats of corruption and abuse of power. Republican Minority Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia would make reforming Congress part of his Republican revolution of 1994 that gave his party a net gain of 54 seats in Congress and the GOP control of the House for the first time in 40 years.