[Pete] Peterson, along with the rest of the country, learned that dozens of his colleagues had been bouncing checks at the House Bank, a private institution operating a few steps off the House floor. Rather than paying a bad-check penalty, as their constituents would do, the House members got off free. The bank covered the overdrafts.

Though the House voted to shut down the bank Thursday, the mini-scandal further blemishes Congress' tarnished reputation. Peterson and other observers say that the check-writing scandal reinforce's Americans' feelings that their Congress is often out of touch and irrelevant to their everyday lives.

Not that any of this is entirely new: Congress' reputation provided joke material for humorists Will Rogers and Mark Twain, and now comics such as Jay Leno are in on the feast. But lawmakers such as Peterson say Congress must cast off some of its old ways and reach out to interest more Americans in politics and government.