Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Because You Can't Let Ethics Get In the Way of a Good Crisis

From The Hill:
House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), have ratcheted up the pressure on their rank-and-file members to oppose a resolution calling for an ethics committee investigation into the ties between key Democrats and a controversial defense-lobbying firm.

Democratic leaders have told their members they should let the ethics panel do its work and stop supporting a measure sponsored by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that calls for an ethics probe into political donations from the now-defunct PMA Group lobbying firm and earmarks its clients received.
So, it was OK when Democrats were hounding (properly) former Republican representatives but not so much now.

I don't think that some investigations are something that the House should manage themselves and this is one of them. The FBI is looking at PMA and there will be questions for House members, but there needs to be an investigation. Everyone assumes that lobbyists "buy votes" all the time, but it is not usually the case. But if PMA was violating the rules and candidates and Members were violating the rules, then we have a different story.

"Most Ethical Congress Ever" must be premised on the idea that Ethics comes from lack of ethics investigations.

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