Among Members of Congress, who are the candidates for the most moral/ethical/behaviorally upright member? Who is the Mr(s). Clean that you would be most surprised to find embroiled in scandal?
The last thing I wanted to think of was some Congressman’s standing member. Thanks a lot.
Earl Blumenauer,* 3rd District from Oregon. Has appeared on Colbert Report twice! First got to know him long before he started wearing those awful bowties. Was a wonk before wonks were cool.
- Wikipedia citation irony alert.
Bowties are not awful.
Disclosure: not an unbiased observer. I wear one almost every day.
How can you tell if a politician is lying?
When he speaks. 
I don’t know about current members, but one worth mentioning is William H. Natcher from Kentucky. Not only did he never miss a vote from 1953 to 1994, when he was on his deathbed, he also refused to accept campaign contributions.
Okay, obviously I’m missing something here – but who would want to contribute to the campaign of someone who was in the process of dying?
Sorry, poor sentence construction…he never missed a vote until just a few weeks before his death. He also refused to accept campaign contributions throughout his career.
<small applause>
I agree with this vote. But, to be fair, he probably has one of the safest house seat in the country, so there aren’t a lot of pressures on him to raise dirty money, etc. But he is a genuinely good person – I used to see him riding his bike around Portland.
Ted Strickland, 6th Ohio, who is likely to be elected governor.
Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s sole representative, and almost certainly soon-to-be one of Vermont’s senators. In the current senate race, the worst things his opponant has managed to dig up is that he is against being tougher on criminals, and accepted some money from sugar plantation owners.