David Kirkpatrick at The New York Times examines the difference between the limited progress on ethics and campaign finance reform in Congress, and the sweeping changes being made at the state level to address money in politics scandals and the pressing need for reform.

Happy New Year! This new year, with its new Congress brings a fresh opportunity for our representatives in Washington to listen to voters and pass full public financing of elections to make the scandals that marked 2006 a thing of the past. Our President and CEO Nick Nyhart writes in The Patriot News about the challenges ahead, and the growing support for public financing in Congress.

The Washington Post published a run down of imprisoned super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's 2001 holiday shopping list which listed the various expensive treats and trinkets Abramoff gifted to members of Congress he was courting. It certainly confirms just how dearly Abramoff prized Tom DeLay's actions on his behalf - he sent the former House Majority Leader $250 worth of Godiva chocolates.

Nancy Watzman, our Colorado-based research and investigative projects director, has this piece in The Denver Post on the potential to make real progress in passing Clean Elections-style full public financing for congressional elections - something she'd like to hear more about from Colorado's represenatatives in Congress.

Public Campaign's President and CEO, Nick Nyhart along with representatives from US PIRG, Democracy Matters, and Common Cause California talked with the San Francisco Chronicle a few days ago about the possibilty of passing Clean Elections at the federal level. Yesterday the Chronicle published this strong endorsement to "drain the swamp" and clean up Congress by making Clean Elections a part of the Democratic agenda in 2007.

Among the reforms being considered by the Democratic leaders of the incoming 110th Congress is an independent ethics oversight panel, an apparent acknowledgement that Congress is no longer able to police itself. Yet, despite this interest in investigating new ethical breaches no major overhaul is being considered that would mitigate existing conflicts of interest.

David Sirota, the author of Hostile Takeover who writes frequently on the importance of publicly financed elections has this awfully satisfying rant up over at Huffington Post on how frustrating it is to watch legislators campaign against corruption, then go right back to cocktail hour with lobbyists.

With their plan to make lobbying reform a priority once they take control of Congress, Democrats are looking to take advantage of a national mood that wants action on corruption, but before they get crazy with reform they're taking all the lobbyist money they can get their hands on, according to the Wall Street Journal. Is that like having one last piece of cake before you go on a diet?

The Democrats are working out the particulars of the ethics legislation they will roll out in January, and while some members of Congress seem resistant to change, others argue that the proposals on the table don't do nearly enough. I'd have to agree.

Help me out - I'm still trying to place this on the funny/sad continuum. TPMmuckraker is reporting that one law firm, Covington and Burling, anticipates such a high number of corruption investigations to be initiated by the new Democratic Congress that its circulating a memo touting its services to potential investigation targets (like big corporations).