Surging Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was declared one of the "most corrupt" members of Congress in 2006 by a group called CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington).  The charge is often used against Santorum in the presidential campaign by his Republican opponents.  Santorum denies any wrongdoing and claims that CREW is a politically-motivated left-wing organization.  Let's take a closer look.

CREW makes a number of connections between contributors to Santorum's campaign organizations and legislation he sponsored or supported while serving in the Senate.  Most damning is the $44,750 Santorum received from hospital-related interests in Puerto Rico, which appears to have been in exchange for Santorum sponsoring the Medicare Puerto Rico Hospital Payment Parity Act in the US Senate.

Santorum also sponsored legislation that would require the National Weather Service to provide data to private weather forecasting companies but prohibit the government service from disclosing the data itself in most cases. The founders of AccuWeather had "contributed $40,000 to Santorum and the Republican Party since 2003," reported CREW.

There's more.  The day after a vote in support of tobacco interests, Santorum's leadership PAC received $10,000 from the tobacco industry.  Santorum also took in $6,000 from Miller Brewing Company and Anheuser-Busch while sponsoring legislation to cut in half the excise tax on large brewers.

Rick Santorum engaged in crony capitalism when he secured a $100 million loan in an earmark for Waste Management Processes, a Pennsylvania company that converts coal to diesel fuel.  The company's CEO and his family members donated a total of $16,500 to the Senator's campaign committee and $8,500 to his PAC.

CREW also makes some lesser charges against Santorum, but the above examples seem to substantiate accusations that Rick Santorum is indeed what most ordinary citizens would consider a corrupt politician.  

But is Santorum among the most corrupt?  Here is where CREW gets into trouble.  To look at CREW’s list for 2006, one would think that being a Republican is as much of a problem as the corrupt system.  They list twenty-one Republicans and only four Democrats.  Most of the Democrats are such egregious cases that leaving them off the list would have been impossible without CREW losing complete credibility.  For example, Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana was caught with his refrigerator full of cash from a bribe.  CREW goes after only token Democrats.

CREW's 2011 list of the most corrupt members of Congress is at least better balanced.  But it's not good enough.  Partisan reformers discredit the cause of reform.  Progressive reformers still refuse to go after the most corrupt and most powerful progressive politicians, like President Obama, Congressman Barney Frank, or former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Consider the case of Pelosi, who was exposed by conservative muckraker Peter Schweizer in his book Throw Them All Out. Pelosi and her husband were able to secure shares of Visa's initial public offering (IPO) at a price unavailable to the public while important legislation affecting Visa was before Congress.  The Pelosis’ investment in Visa was quite substantial, representing 10% of their total stock portfolio.  The IPO soon paid them a handsome 203% return.  Pelosi, a credit card reformer, chose to focus on regulations that affected the banks that issue the cards, and not the card companies like Visa, which were targets in some other unsuccessful pieces of legislation.  The Visa IPO was just one of several that Pelosi and her husband converted into big personal financial gains.

Schweizer also shows how Nancy Pelosi secured transportation infrastructure projects near property she owns in California, dramatically increasing the value of that property.  Schweizer spotlighted a similar deal that Speaker Pelosi's Republican predecessor, Dennis Hastert, got for himself by funding a highway project near land he owned.  By calling his book Throw Them All Out, and going after powerful Republicans as well as Democrats, Schweizer models a non-partisan muckraking approach that progressive reformers need to learn to emulate.

Was Rick Santorum one of the most corrupt members of Congress?  Sadly, he is probably more typical than especially corrupt, but that important point gets lost when partisanship and reform get mixed together.