NEW LAW: CONGRESSIONAL WIVES MUST BEHAVE-- SONS AND DAUGHTERS? NOT SO MUCH

Crooked GOP Congressman John Doolittle and the crooked little Mrs.

Congress can't pass a law ex post facto in order to punish someone. If it wasn't a crime when they done it, there's nothing anyone can do. So, it's going to be very hard to go after Julie Doolittle, Gayle Sweeney, or Tom DeLay's moll wife, or the crooked wives of any number of Republicans whose wives served as their bag-ladies. That's because the House passed an ethics bill yesterday prohibiting congressmen to pay their wives for campaign work. Though few were as blatantly criminal as the Doolittles, almost 100 members of Congress were involved in what the new law forbids.

But even if people could be prosecuted ex post facto, two of the most corrupt members of Congress from the Bush years, Curt Weldon (R-PA) and Conrad Burns (R-MT)-- each ignominously defeated and swept out of public office after a series of corruption scandals-- would be safe. That's because each used their daughter to collect the bribes and enrich the family. The law is only about wives, not sons (see Denny Hastert Family) or daughters.