This bodes well, if it works. The Washington Post reports today that House Democrats will introduce a series of votes on ethics reforms:

But they will do it with a twist: Instead of forwarding one big bill, Democrats will put together an ethics package on the House floor piece by piece, allowing incoming freshmen to take charge of high-profile issues and lengthening the time spent on the debate. The approach will ensure that each proposal — including banning gifts, meals and travel from lobbyists as well as imposing new controls on the budget deficit — is debated on its own and receives its own vote. That should garner far more media attention for the bill’s components before a final vote on the entire package.

Additionally, Nancy Pelosi plans to establish a new work ethic by keeping the House in session through January, rather than heeding the tradition that has members attending a ceremonial first week after the holidays, then adjourning for the rest of the month. As Mark Sandlow of the SF Chronicle posits:

Pelosi’s team apparently figures there’s no reason to allow President Bush to set the agenda in January by leaking bits of his speech. Instead the Democratic Congress will immediately plunge into its lengthy to-do list, starting with an ethics reform package, and perhaps have some bills on Bush’s desk by the time the State of the Union is ready for delivery.

And to top it off,the NY Times reports that Pelosi will evict Denny “Mark Foley Who?” Hastert from his prized office suite.

In something of a break with recent tradition, the incoming Democratic speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, is planning to expropriate the second-floor suite of offices now occupied by the current speaker, J. Dennis Hastert — a handful of rooms providing a spectacular view of the Mall.

That space has been in Republican hands for 50 years or so, even when Democrats were in charge. In fact, the main offices are so strongly associated with Republicans that they were officially designated the Robert H. Michel Rooms by the House in 1995 in honor of the popular former Republican leader.

You go, girl! And I look forward to seeing John Conyers holding hearings in regular conference rooms from here on out, instead of the basement offices where he’s been relegated by a belligerant Republican majority.

~Stef