The new Republican Congress is off to a roaring start. Even before the gavel officially dropped on Tuesday morning, the House GOP caucus met in secret and voted to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. Word quickly leaked, phone lines and social media lit up and President-elect Donald Trump took to his trusty Twitter account to express reservations.

End result: Never mind.

Republican leadership backed away, suggesting they'd revisit the ethics office at a later date. Which will be fine, as long as it's done in the light of day, with full and open debate. The office could use some fine-tuning.

What's bewildering is how a majority of the House Republicans could have missed one of the most important lessons of the 2016 elections: People are angry at politics as usual. Voters allegedly see politicians as members of a privileged class, unaccountable to people like them.

We say "allegedly" because despite a congressional approval rating of 17 percent last year, 97 percent of incumbent House members were returned to office, as were 90 percent of Senate incumbents. Given a chance to throw the bums out, voters demurred.

The reasons for that are complicated, having a lot to do with incumbents' fundraising advantages and congressional districts that are drawn to favor one party over another. Ignorance plays a part, too. The Gallup Organization has found that only 35 percent of voters can name their U.S. representative.

Members count on being able to operate pretty much as they like, which is no doubt why Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., thought nobody would pay much attention to his proposal to neuter the ethics office, stripping its independent ability to investigate anonymous allegations. Goodlatte wanted the OCE to become a creature of the House Ethics Committee instead of an independent entity.

Goodlatte has a reputation as a straight arrow. To be kind, not all of his colleagues do.

The OCE was created in 2008 when Democrats controlled the House. Disclosures about lobbyist Jack Abramoff's ties to former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, suggested the House's own ethics committee wasn't up to the job of policing members.

The OCE has proved its value, but in doing so embarrassed both Republican and Democratic members. They complained about having to defend themselves from anonymous complaints that eventually resulted in minor disciplinary sanctions.

At some point, Goodlatte should hold hearings. The Office of Congressional Ethics should do a better job of keeping its investigations private and not prejudging the accused. But when its work is done, its findings must be made public, not buried.

The deck is stacked for incumbents, all the more reason that the public deserves to know it's getting honest service from them. Sadly, taking their word for it is not good enough.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH