The House Ethics Committee has finally awakened to the possibility that some members of Congress might be crooks.

Better late than never.

The ethics panel sat in a stupor for 16 months while lobbyists and lawmakers were hauled off to jail for corruption. Committee members were mired in partisan gridlock, unable to agree on a restaurant takeout order, much less on attempts to discipline their own colleagues.

Finally, with the departure from the panel of Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, D-W.Va., who is embroiled in questions about his own financial dealings, the panel has agreed to conduct probes of two other lawmakers. Both cases cried out for action, and the investigations are long overdue.

Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., might have a very good reason that explains why he was keeping $90,000 in cash in his freezer. (Um, because the lettuce crisper was full?) The FBI has a theory, too. It believes Jefferson was taking bribes to promote high-tech companies to leaders of African nations. Jefferson serves on the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee. The FBI videotaped him taking $100,000 in $100 bills from an investor. A former Jefferson aide and a businessman pleaded guilty to bribery in January.

Cash for clout. This is a road map to disciplinary action that even the ethics committee can follow.

The probe into Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, involves allegations that are more nuanced, but no less damning. Ney is tied to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is going to jail and could take several members of Congress with him. Abramoff has pleaded guilty to giving lawmakers, including Ney, trips, meals, sports tickets and other goodies in return for their official actions on behalf of his clients. Ney, like Jefferson, has denied any wrongdoing. Both lawmakers already are under separate criminal investigations.

In addition to the Jefferson and Ney probes, the House ethics panel said it would have loved to investigate the ethically challenged former majority leader, Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Alas, DeLay is quitting Congress, so an investigation is not needed. Well, they sure showed him, didn't they?

It is unclear whether this belated effort by the ethics committee to enforce standards of integrity is sincere. Given the panel's recent paralysis, any action at all is progress. But the move could be just an election-year attempt by lawmakers to mollify voters who, according to polls, hold a historically high level of contempt for the Republican-led Congress.

The need for the panel to do something was especially high, from a face-saving standpoint, after the House rejected legislation that would have created an independent office to investigate ethics complaints.

To show the public that it means business, the House ethics committee needs to do much more than simply rise from its bed. It must conduct thorough, timely investigations; impose discipline where it's needed; and foster an atmosphere in which the rules of ethical conduct are taken seriously again.