I was listening to the radio today, and the speaker mentioned the Culture of Corruption that has grown and come to characterize the Bush administration and the Republican Party. And, perversely, I wondered if it was fair to judge the Republicans by someone else's standards. It is entirely possible that the Democrats, for instance, might judge Republicans unfairly, if not harshly. I say, let's judge the current Republican Party by its own standards, as laid out in the Republican Contract With America.

Yes, the Republican Contract With America: that smug, self-serving and sanctimonious proclamation wherein the House Republicans excoriated the Democrats for corruption and mismanagement when they gained the majority in the House of Representatives and promised that Things Would Be Different Now. Of course, then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, the architect of the Contract With America, was removed from his position for his corrupt ways. But never mind that bit of foreshadowing. Let's proceed with a review of the Contract, which can be found on the House website here in case you're a Republican and you think I might be lying and therefore won't believe a word I write unless you can read it for yourself. Here's how it begins:

As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to change its policies, but even more important, to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives.

That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.

This year's election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

Oh my gosh. How ironic that the Republicans, whose current administration is characterized by its atmosphere of secrecy and behind-closed-doors deals, promised to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives. So much for Paragraph 1.

And Paragraph 2 seems to be saying that the Republicans would not resort to evasion and posturing. Which, in retrospect, it is blindingly apparent that the whole Contract turned out to be. To be honest, there is no fine print providing loopholes in the Contract With America; it was simply ignored.

Paragraph 3 appears to be denigrating one-party control, although it celebrates its own one-party control. That is just weird. I can't believe someone didn't catch that back in the 90s. More intriguing is the misprint where the Republicans accidentally used the word "end" instead of "beginning" when they promised "government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money." I mean come on, I don't think I could have described the Bush administration better if I had tried. Plus, Bush has given a whole new dimension to the concept of "intrusive."

Wow. We are not off to a very good start. If we are judging the Republicans by these standards, the failure rate is phenomenally high. Let's see what the Republicans of last decade promised was in store for America.

Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act "with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.

Congress more accountable these days? Nope. An end of scandal and disgrace? That sounds an awful lot like the exact opposite of the Culture of Corruption of this decade's Republicans (many of whom were also last decade's Republicans). Proud of our government is not exactly how I would describe my feelings about Congress, the administration, or the Supreme Court right now. How about you?

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:

FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

The 104th Congress was 1995-1996, exactly one decade ago. Consider the changes they promised.

FIRST, the laws still don't apply equally to lawmakers. Which makes sense since they write the laws and so build in the loopholes and exceptions as they see fit. But even the laws that don't have lawmaker exceptions are only enforced as a result of the most egregious trangressions. Bribes are legal (although they are called "political contributions").

SECOND, the Bush administration actually threatened the General Accounting Office with a budget cut if they insisted on investigating corruption within the administration. Not precisely the spirit of encouraging open and comprehenisive auditing as promised.

THIRD, who cares? Committees are where laws go to die out of sight of the House floor. More or fewer committees under the iron-fisted control of the Republican machine makes no difference.

FOURTH, "term limits?" Get real. Republicans will do nothing to endanger their power structure. No one should have believed this one from the start.

FIFTH, again, who cares? I have no idea what this means exactly but it sounds vaguely administrative and procedural, neither of which are as important as, say, cutting down on corruption and bribery.

SIXTH, open meetings in the Bush administration? This is an absolute joke.

SEVENTH, another joke. The Republican simple majority has gone to great lengths to minimize the power of dissenters. Rules changes are being applied to make it easier for a simple Republican majority to do pretty much anything that previously required more than a simple majority consensus. Consider the "nuclear option" which would abolish existing options for the minority party (or simply bipartisan) dissent.

EIGHTH, budgetary and fiscal responsibility from the Republican administration that squandered a budget surplus in 2000 and continues to run up one of the largest deficits in history?

So go ahead. Judge the Republicans according to the standards they set out 10 years ago. Don't judge them against the Democrats. The Democrats did not write the Contract With America.

The Contract goes on to list several pie-in-the-sky bills that were never enacted in any meaningful way. It is interesting to read them and think about how nice it would have been if the Republicans had followed through or even kept their promises. But if you want to decide whether the Democrats are being unfair in labeling the current regimne as a culture of corruption, read about the standards the Republicans set out for government and decide for yourself how well they have acquitted themselves.