Congressmen make ethics laws?

I hate to sound like a Jeremiah, but here goes: However much congress toys with ethics they will always come up short. It is not that they, the lawmakers, are inherently dishonest. It is the nature of the beast, the culture of ‘entitlement’.
To borrow another OT allusion; these are the Pharisees in the system; it is their job to argue every ‘jot and tittle’. We are not talking ‘Thou Shalt Not…’ Every ethical rule will be fashioned against what they might or might see themselves to be entitled to.

The only proven way to ensure a reasonable level of ethics is to put the whole issue in the hands of a third party. The same goes for a number of other contentious issues which should not be within the realm of self-interest.
Here we can include electoral law, remuneration and of course entitlement. Of course the natural, self-interest argument against independent umpires is that they too have self interests.
That is no doubt true, and we do see instances of corrupt corruption fighters. More often though, regardless of possible partisan background or other influences, appointees generally adopt these roles with sincere passion.
I have no allusions that US lawmakers are hanging on my every word here. It is a bit like pissing into the wind, but it still needs saying. When we see the headline: House Leaders look to establish Independent ethics commission I will start to see some hope for the future of the nation which has such enormous influence, for good and bad, across the globe.