DC Country Club
The past year was a tough one for ethics in Congress, and the coming year may be worse. So why is the House ethics committee so steadfastly silent?
Blame it on a deal made in the mid-1990’s. That’s when, by many accounts, House Democrats and Republicans were each convinced that the opposing party was using ethics charges for unfair political attacks. So both parties agreed to a truce.
Five Democrats and five Republicans sit on the committee, and both parties say they want to restore ethical standards in the Capitol, but the committee has said nothing to say about the spate of recent ethical troubles. That has political activists on both the left and the right saying the ethics truce itself is unethical.
We have the pot and the kettle agreeing not to call attention to each other by finding out who’s crapping on the fire, the food and the folks who pick up the tab.
House Ethics Committee Chair Richard “Do-Nothing Doc” Hastings (R-WA) deserves the lion’s share of the blame. Old Doc is so deeply in Tom DeLay’s pocket that he has lint instead of hair.
Brenda — not too many folks get me to laugh out loud when moderating comments. Thank you.
Ethics? In Congress? No way!
I thought truce was considered broken after the complaints against Tom Delay by the guy who was upset over losing his seat. Of course the original charge against Newt Gingrich that started the truce was eventually found to be without merit.