I am directed to two nice quotes from Senator Dianne Feinstein:

Senator Dianne Feinstein,
the California Democrat who will oversee any proposal as the incoming
chairwoman of the Rules Committee, for example, said she was opposed to
an independent Congressional ethics watchdog. “If the law is clear and
precise, members will follow it,” she said in an interview. “As to
whether we need to create a new federal bureaucracy to enforce the
rules, I would hope not.”

Well, gee, isn’t that an excellent method of law making? All we need to do is make the laws clear and precise and we don’t have to have federal bureaucracies. So when are you going to work on the EPA and OSHA then?

Or is there something different about Members of Congress that means that only they face such simple incentives?

That idea, however, has never gained much traction in Congress, in part
because lawmakers balk at the notion of helping challengers who want
their jobs. “You use taxpayer dollars to finance people who may not
only be fringe candidates but — I was going to use the term ‘nut’— may
be mentally incompetent,” Ms. Feinstein said.

Those who stand against the current two party orthodoxy are nuts?