I really like John Hardly's list of simple principles.
I would add one other: that a bill may only be about one subject.
All of the BS surrounding pork riders, give-and-take favoritism, and old-boy networking comes to a point int he insertion of little riders and piggy-back provisions which are not related to the subject of the bill.
What a difference it would make if a bill could only be what it was about, and had to be named in a way which reflected that.