It occurs to me that I should, when the opportunity presents itself, point out excellent but little known an underutilized resources on the Web that can help bring transparency and accountability to Congress.

Given that congressional travel seems to still be a rich vein of potentially unethical behavior — see Rep. Alan Mollohan’s latest trouble (chronicled here thanks to The Influence Peddler) and reference to the special interest-sponsored Hawaiian vacations favored by Rep. Hal Rogers here — I’d be lax in not pointing out the Power Trips database put together by MarketPlace, American RadioWorks and students from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The data is, sadly, not up to date, but anyone can use it to see the third-party sponsored travel taken by any member of Congress between 2000 and 2005.