In the Ithaca Journal today (reprinted from The Christian Science Monitor) Mark Lange expresses frustration with the slow pace of ethics and lobbying reform in Congress. It takes forever to put a bill together and by the time it gets to a vote it's watered-down beyond recognition. So he has some recommendations... Among them are better disclosure of bundlers and their aggregated contributors, public disclosure of lobbyist-funded media campaigns, and shedding a little sunlight on earmark provisions inserted by members of Congress to direct spending. Disclosure is a good start but the ultimate change to pursue to get, as Lange describes, a "Congress that deserves your money, not to mention your trust," is what Desma DeCareli is writing in favor of in the Press & Sun-Bulletin: full public financing of campaigns at the state and federal level. As Lange argues, cities and states are far outpacing Congress when it comes to ethics overhauls so the seven states and two cities with Clean Elections-style full public financing laws should be ample precendent for Congress to embrace such a system in the form of the Fair Elections Now Act and its companion legislation in the House.