by Martin Schram

About the author: Martin Schram, author of The Great American Video Game: Presidential Politics in the Television Age, is a syndicated columnist and a regular panelist on Reliable Sources, a CNN television program.

Bathed in the rose-orange hues of a springtime sunset, the Capitol dome gleamed in deceptive brilliance as the U.S. Senate voted in May 1994 to ban itself from taking freebies from lobbyists. No gifts, no junkets, no winings-and-dinings. Soon to be gone, forevermore.

Bathed in the white-hot TV light that is now the official afterglow of every Washington newsmoment, Common Cause crusader Fred Wertheimer was more than glowing—he was gushing— about the 95 to 4 vote. “This will fundamentally change the way business is done in Washington and on Capitol Hill,” he declared.

Bathed in...