Finally some state House Democrats are speaking out and asking Bill DeWeese to resign as majority leader.

Frankly, we thought he should have stepped aside more than a year ago, when news first came out that $1.9 million in secret bonuses had been paid to staffers.

Since then, he has been cooperating with an investigation by state Attorney General Tom Corbett that led to grand jury presentments alleging a culture of corruption in the Capitol. A dozen Democrats have been charged, including Mike Veon, the former longtime representative from Beaver County who was Mr. DeWeese's second-in-command in the House Democratic Caucus.

So far, Mr. Corbett said he's found evidence that the hefty bonuses were payback for work on political campaigns, employees were routinely diverted from their jobs to provide personal and political services, and tax money was used to bump third-party candidates off the ballot and provide a no-work job for an aide's mistress. And the investigation is not over.

Mr. DeWeese was not among those charged, and he did impose changes in the caucus last year. But at best, his explanation of his role amounts to an admission that he didn't know what his underlings were doing.

Frankly, we thought House Democrats would have been tripping over themselves not only in calling for Mr. DeWeese to get out of the way but also to promise ethical reforms. Granted, the behavior alleged by the grand jury violates current law, but that doesn't obviate the need for lots of cleanup work in Harrisburg.

Senate Republicans were much quicker out of the gate in pressing for commitments that reforms will be taken up when legislators return to Harrisburg in September. Freshman Sen. John Eichelberger of Blair County called for quick House action on a bill that would ban any future bonuses for state workers, leaders pressed for House votes on that and six other measures, and Sen. Jeffrey Piccola is calling for a special session to focus on ethics.

We don't think a special session is necessary. Ethics must be at the top of the agenda when lawmakers get back in the fall, starting with a state law banning bonuses, not simply doing so with House rules, as Mr. DeWeese did last year.

Other items that should be on the list: limiting campaign contributions; banning lobbyists from giving money or gifts to lawmakers; and a constitutional convention to take up reducing the size of the General Assembly, creating a citizens' commission to redraw legislative district lines after a census and giving Pennsylvanians the power of initiative and referendum.

Getting Mr. DeWeese out of leadership is just the beginning.