Oh, dear, we we go again.

Since 2006, the story line on "Congressional insider trading" has gone something like this:

Article in financial press about recent apparent insider trading by members of Congress or their staff, which also notes that insider trading by Congress actually falls through the cracks of what is illegal under the law.

Follow-up articles by more mainstream publications expressing shock--shock!--that our esteemed representatives in Washington, DC are not subject to insider trading laws like the rest of us.

Proposed legislation by Rep. Brian Baird (D., Wash.) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D., N.Y.) called the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act” (the STOCK Act) that would explicitly make it illegal for members of Congress and their aides to trade stocks and other securities based on inside information obtained from the legislative process.

Deafening silence and lack of support from the rest of Congress on the STOCK Act lead to the Act going nowhere ( a total of six congressmen supported the most recent iteration of the STOCK Act).

Wait 12 months and repeat entire process.

Baird and Slaughter have re-introduced the STOCK Act repeatedly since 2006, with no success. I've already written about this issue in 2009 and in May of this year but, like clockwork, it is back again after a WSJ article earlier this week showed that at least 72 congressional aides traded stocks in 2008 and 2009 that were of companies overseen by their bosses' congressional committees. This article, naturally, spawned the usual "OMG, Congress is allowed to do insider trading?!" follow-up articles, and also led Rep. Baird to immediately vow to renew his quixotic effort to outlaw insider trading on Capitol Hill.

The October 2010 version of this story, however, has one new twist. According to the WSJ, Rep. Baird appears to be losing faith in his ability to get the STOCK Act passed, and has moved on to Plan B. Baird told the WSJ that rather than passing legislation, he now believes that Congress should amend the official ethics guidelines and rules governing its members. He says the the next House majority "could easily add the new rules as part of the process of convening the new Congress in 2011." The new rules, Rep. Baird says, would include required disclosures of all trades within 48 hours instead of a year afterward, as required under current rules.