Dirty Deeds Go Unpunished

Those of us that have believe that the lack of activity regarding the ethics meltdown in the House of Representatives is due to GOP control need to think again.

The fact is that Democrats are far from powerless in moving against those who violate ethics or the law.
We all need to be asking the oppostition party why they are refusing to act and why they are telling us they cannot do anything when plainly they can.

Has Congress become a "mutual protection society" that shuts out acccountability?

Clean House

The collapse of ethics in the House captured the headlines when Randy "Duke" Cunningham" resigned on November 28th 2005. He resigned after pleading guilty to bribery and tax evasion.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise.
It had been known that Cunningham was under investigation for nearly six months. Long before Cunningham was charged with criminal behavior, juicy details were were showing up in the press on a regular basis.

Yet the dis-interested members of the House of Representatives never bothered to file a single ethics complaint against Cunningham.

In October the excellent legal watchdog group, CREW (Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington) drew up complaints against Cunningham and fellow Representative, Bob Ney.

Since only House members have the ability to file a complaint, CREW asked supporters of the organization to download the complaints off their website and give them to their respective Representatives, requesting that they be filed.

I was one of the people that participated in this exercise of direct democracy.
Here's what happened.

In mid-October, my Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) had a Saturday morning coffee for his constituents. I downloaded the complaints and headed off to the meeting.
Inslee is a hard working legislator who does his best to think through issues and support the interests of his constituents. He spoke on a variety of issues and took questions.

Inslee complained bitterly about the ethics situation in the House. He knows Doc Hastings, the head of the Ethics Committee quite well. He claimed that Hastings is flat out refusing to open any ethics investigations.

Kennie Endelman, Inslee's regional manager was at the meeting. I knew her and had spoken with her about a number of issues. I gave her the Ethics Complaints with an explanation and a request that Inslee consider filing.

Later that day, haunted by Inslee's complaint of the Hasting's intractability, I wrote to CREW and passed on the information about Hastings. I asked if there was anything else that could be done.

Melane Sloan, the executive director of CREW wrote me back almost immediately and I shocked by what she wrote.

She said "Here's what your Representative didn't tell you.....

“ if a complaint were filed with the ethics committee, under House rules, the Committee is required to begin an ethics investigation. If the committee fails to act at all, a subcommittee is automatically formed to begin an investigation. So, Doc Hastings cannot avoid an investigation if a complaint is filed.”

Six weeks later, On November 27th I recieved a disappointing update from Melanie Sloan.

Not one member of the House had filed either ethics complaint.

The next day, Cunningham resigned and House Minority leader, Nancy Pelosi was asking Speaker Hastert to open an investigation on Cunningham.
I was puzzled by her actions.

Why didn't she just file an ethics complaint? According to the information that Melanie had given me, the Ethics Committee had to respond. Speaker Hastert could just say no.

I wrote to CREW again and asked if I correct in assuming that if Pelosi were serious about opening an investigation, she could download CREW'S complaint and walk across the floor and hand it to Hastings.

Melanie Sloan responded;

"You’re right that Pelosi could have filed our complaint against Cunningham with the ethics committee at any time and she did not need Hastert to do anything, but I don’t think anyone is seeking to investigate Cunningham now since he resigned this week. Of course, we still have an ethics complaint outstanding against Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) over the Abramoff scandal and no one is filing that either."

I was disappointed and angry. I had questions.

Are Democrats and honest Republicans unaware of House rules?

Are Democrats cowed by the uber-partisan party's accusations of partisanship if they act?

Are Democrats and honest Republicans "playing along to get along" at the expense of good government?

Why have Democrats and honest Republicans in Congress done so little to oppose excesses and criminal wrongdoing, when there clearly are avenues open to them?

Follow Up

Okay, why don't we try this again.

Here is the link for the complaint against Rep. Bob Ney.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/activities/campaign.php?view=64

In case Speaker Hastert says no to Cunningham investigation, here is the complaint against Cunningham.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/activities/campaign.php?view=67

The appropriate documents are listed on the side bar.

If Congress can’t do a better job of policing itself, perhaps we need a citizen’s committee to do the job.

If Congress is acting as a mutual protection agency instead of caring for their constituents, it’s time to clean house.

Carol DW
with thanks to Melanie Slone and Lindsay Allen.