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| Politics Forum Index » Democrats (House) Politics Forum » Hoyer Lies: Democrats meeting pledge to 'drain... |
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| Leroy N. Soetoro... |
 Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:45 am |
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When is Rangel going to jail you fucking mealy mouthed cunt?
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/66071-hoyer-democrats-meeting-pledge-to-
drain-swamp-on-ethics
The dozens of investigations of lawmakers revealed last week by an
accidental ethics committee leak show that Democrats are living up to
their pledge to make Congress more ethical, House Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer said Tuesday.
“There were a lot of people saying the ethics committee isn’t doing
anything,” Hoyer said at his weekly news briefing. “They have been
emphatically disabused of that notion. The reports have indicated they’re
doing their job."
Hoyer (D-Md.) also argued that the large number of Democrats under
investigation shows that leaders and committee members from the majority
party aren’t protecting their own.
“People also said it was partisan. This shows it is not,” Hoyer said.
Hoyer’s comments come days after a leaked ethics panel report revealed
more than 30 lawmakers, mostly Democrats, are under scrutiny by the
committee. The Washington Post obtained the report last week after a
security breach. which was attributed to a low-level committee staffer
working at home, and using a peer-to-peer, file-sharing program.
According to the Post’s report, more than 25 Democrats have been targeted
for ethics reviews by the ethics committee and the new Office of
Congressional Ethics (OCE). Only seven Republicans appear to be under
scrutiny.
Hoyer said the unauthorized release of the document was unfortunate
because confidentiality is important “to protect the innocent.”
Ethics groups said they were pleased to learn of the investigations, but
warned Democrats must show a willingness to punish poor behavior to
fulfill 2006 campaign promises to “drain the swamp” and run the “most
ethical Congress.”
“…We were pleasantly surprised to learn the ethics committee is
investigating so many members of Congress, but starting an investigation
isn’t enough,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a release last week. “The
real question is whether any of the members under investigation will ever
be held accountable for their conduct.”
She went on to say that the ethics panel’s record on such matters is
dismal.
Watchdogs have zeroed in on the committee’s failure to interview Rep.
Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) about alleged tax and other financial violations
even though he has been under investigation for nearly a year and a half.
The ethics committee, however, did interview him about the trip to the
Caribbean island of St. Maarten that he and four members of the
Congressional Black Caucus took last November, according to the Post’s
report.
Rangel told the Post that the committee had not interviewed him to discuss
other elements of the investigation involving his personal finances and
whether he misused House letterhead to raise funds for a college center
named after him, among other allegations.
The document also showed that that seven members of the Defense
appropriations subcommittee are being looked at because of their
connections to the now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group.
The members have steered federal earmarks to the firm’s clients and
received tens of thousands of campaign contributions from PMA Group
employees and their clients.
The lawmakers under scrutiny include Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the
chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on Defense, as well as Reps.
Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), Jim Moran (D-Va.), Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), Bill
Young (R-Fla.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), according
to the report in the Post.
The document also shows that the ethics committee authorized subpoenas to
the Justice Department, the National Security Agency and the FBI for
information about Rep. Jane Harman’s (D-Calif.) 2005 conversation with an
Israeli operative who was trying to win leniency for two pro-Israel
lobbyists in exchange for his help in getting the Intelligence Committee
chairmanship.
The Justice Department had asked the panel to suspend an investigation of
Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), according to the document, suggesting a
continued Justice probe.
The new Office of Congressional Ethics, governed by an independent board
of former lawmakers, has sparred with the ethics committee about whether a
Republican broke rules when he invited his wife's business partner to
testify at a hearing.
Hoyer said that the friction between the two entities is “not unusual.”
The House ethics committee scrutinized nearly two-dozen members and aides
in the 110th Congress, according to the panel's biennial report.
The committee conducted informal inquiries into 14 members and three House
employees, none of whom it identified, as well as five formal
investigations into then-Reps. William Jefferson (D-La.), Rick Renzi (R-
Ariz.) and Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), and Reps. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) and
Rangel.
--
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
Rangel's tax evasion. |
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