There's no such thing as a free lunch or free sports tickets, golfing trips and rock concerts for that matter. And so, when Congressional Republicans recently weakened the ban on gifts from lobbyists a ban they themselves had implemented in 1995 they diminished rules that were designed to prevent the appearance of bribery on Capitol Hill.

When Republicans took control of Congress in 1995, they immediately instituted a total ban on gifts from lobbyists, a move that earned them significant public approval. These rules were crafted in response to demands for reform after years of corruption by the liberal Democrats who controlled Congress for nearly half a century. Over the years however, as public attention has shifted to other matters, Republicans have eased their own rules behind closed doors, allowing lobbyists to dole out meals, sports tickets and luxury seats at rock concerts to members and their staffs. Next up on the permissible list of perks will be golfing trips for charities and free meals catered to congressional offices without any spending limit.

Under the old rules, members and staffs were not allowed to accept more than $100 per year in meals from any single source, $50 in one sitting. Now, with the relaxed rules, members can count the number of people in the office who plan on eating and multiply by $50 per person. In other words, if 20 people are eating, a lobbyist could legally send over a $1,000 meal.

While the House GOP contends these perks do little to influence members and staff, this is a difficult, if not impossible, argument to believe. The Washington Post reported that House Speaker Dennis Hastert himself received a meal delivered to his office from a pharmaceutical company the very night he was to consider his vote on prescription drug legislation. Whether or not this specific gift bought Speaker Hastert's vote is beside the point. The appearance of it all is horrendous.

"When a special interest group gives a gift to a politician, they expect to get something in return. They're certainly not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts," said JW Chairman Larry Klayman. "By weakening the rules, Republicans are openly flirting with corruption, if not issuing an open invitation."

This latest move, when combined with a deal among congressional members to overlook transgressions by their colleagues, shows that Congress is not serious about cleaning up its own act. As Congress continues to shirk its ethical responsibility, JW becomes more important than ever.