Regulators

If a government has any function at all, it is to function as a protector.
First internationally, through the Armed Forces and the State Department. Second, locally, through the police.
And thirdly, through the regulators. These are the most important defenders of the country, because they defend our greatest assets.
Our unity and our trust.
The regulators make sure that the con men and grifters don't prey upon us. They make sure that the medicine we buy is real medicine, and cures what it is supposed to cure. They make sure that the powerful auto manufacturers do not sell us defective cars, that the doctors don't operate while drunk, and that monopolies cannot shut out competition and force us to pay whatever they can squeeze out of us.
Congress and the courts are important components of the regulators. Congress forms the regulations, the laws that prevent the wolves from preying on the sheep. The courts enforce these rules, punishing any errant wolf.
If either of these organizations fails in its job, we all suffer.

Congress falls down on the job unless it deals with changes in society in a timely manner. It needs to learn, from real experts, the nature of the new elements, whether they be computer scams or terrorist movements, and to face these truths without flinching. They need to create new law, based on the needs of society as a whole, not some small section.
Much of the time, they don't. Their actions are based on pork, on re-election strategies, on lobbyist recommendations, on ideology. Such actions debase Congress.
The courts, too, must enforce the law in such a way as to best benefit society. Some might belittle these "activist judges" - but what else is a judge for? A judge must inflict punishments that will act as a true deterrent to crime, while refraining from revenge and cruelty. Each case being different, a judge must use judgment, rather than reliance on precedent, to walk this tightrope properly.
A judge who relies on ideology, on party loyalty, on bias, is no judge.

The greatest harm that scandals like the Abramoff payoffs cause is that it destroys our trust in our regulators. If we cannot trust our regulators, we become prey again for the grifters.
The grifters know this. The grifters want this. This is why the grifters continually try to tempt Congressmen.
This is why Congressmen who succumb, all of them, must be punished, in such a way as to be a true deterrent to the act.
Otherwise, we may as well let the terrorists win. Better them than the grifters.