Congress Needs An Ethics Bailout
ibdeditorials.com
After the 2006 election giving Democrats a majority in both Houses of Congress for the first time in more than a decade, the incoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, promised that "the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history."
It hasn't turned out that way. Barely a month before presidential and congressional elections comes a cherry on top of the layers of congressional Democratic ethical lapses of the 110th Congress — a new scandal involving the speaker's own campaign cash.
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The most ethical Congress in history?
With Chris Dodd, D-Conn., still serving as Senate Banking Committee chairman, who took a sweetheart loan deal from Countrywide mortgage? With Kent Conrad, D-N.D., still Senate Budget Committee chairman, who did the same?
How about Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., whose freezer in his Washington, D.C., home was found by the FBI to contain $90,000 in cash? He may be indicted by a grand jury on 16 corruption charges, but he still takes to the floor of the House of Representatives and votes as a member of this self-styled most ethical Congress ever.
Adding mirth to the muck, Jefferson was reportedly pressured, unsuccessfully, to resign his House Ways and Means Committee seat by none other than that panel's chairman, Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. (Jefferson was later thrown off). Maybe that's what Rangel was busy with when he forgot to report to the IRS the $75,000 in rental income for his Dominican Republic beach house. No sign of scandal shaming Rangel into stepping down.
Voters will have no shortage of things to think about as they step into the voting booth next month. One of them should be the Democratic Congress' shattered promise of setting and keeping the highest ethical standards. |
