independent ethics office

With the brave leadership of Senator Rick Santorum, the Senate killed a move to set up an independent ethics office to monitor Senate corruption. According to the POST-GAZETTE:

"Mr. Santorum said that when outside groups have filed ethics complaints against him with the Senate ethics panel, "they're looked at seriously, we have to respond to them, and in some cases we've had to hire counsel to deal with them." But Mr. Santorum said he opposed the independent office because "to hire somebody who is a hired gun from the outside -- whose job it is to sort of 'get' senators -- I just think is corruption of the process."