The Case against Congress

Abstract

Favorable mention in the “Washington Merry-Go-Round” could boost congressional careers, while exposés undermined them. Believing that those who wrote the laws should abide by them, Pearson taunted legislators about their misdeeds and encouraged them to police themselves. He denounced lax ethics rules and exposed members who took kickbacks. The columnist took credit for the indictment, imprisonment, censure, and expulsion of a half dozen members of Congress, and the defeat of many more. It might not have mattered as much to elected officials if the “Merry-Go-Round” had appeared exclusively in the Washington Post, but its widespread syndication increased the odds that their constituents would also read him. Congressman Martin Sweeney sued him, and many more denounced him as a liar. Pearson responded by publishing a “liars’ scorecard,” indicating how often his critics were later convicted for the crimes he accused them of committing.