Policy Group: Dems Should Apply Ethics Reforms to Themselves
by Chad Groening
January 8, 2007
(AgapePress) - - The head of a Washington, DC-based organization that promotes ethics in public life says Democrats on Capitol Hill are being complete hypocrites by claiming that their arrival into power means the dawning of a new era of ethics in the nation's capital. As the 110th Congress opened last week, newly installed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brought directly to the floor ethics reforms that will ban gifts and meals paid for by lobbyists and strictly limit travel for lawmakers funded by outside groups. The measures, which were passed almost unanimously -- and introduced with no Republican input, critics point out -- were part of the California congresswoman's pledge to run "the most ethical Congress in history." Fellow House Democrat Marty Meehan of Massachusetts calls his party's tighter ethics rules "the breath of fresh air that the American people demanded in the last election."
But Ken Boehm of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) says Democrats continue to ignore the ethics problems, for example, of West Virginia Democrat Allan Mollohan, who has been investigated by the FBI. Ironically, he notes, Mollohan might soon be heading the subcommittee that oversees the Bureau.
"He is in line to step up and control their funding," notes Boehm, emphasizing that because the West Virginia lawmaker has been under investigation himself, "that's a serious conflict of interest." The NLPC spokesman wonders, "Is it a breath of fresh air that a person who's been under FBI investigation for most of last year is now going to control the appropriations committee that controls the FBI's funding?"
In addition, Boehm says there are the ethical problems surrounding the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "Congressman John Conyers has gotten his staff to do all sorts of personal things for him -- tutoring his kids, chauffeuring his kids, working in campaigns ... all sorts of things that have been unethical if not illegal for years," he says.
And Boehm says ethics problems continue to surround Congressmen William Jefferson, Alcee Hastings, and John Burtha. He feels the Democrats' mantra "does not pass what they call the 'straight-face test' to come and bally-hoo how ethical they are when they allow things like this to occur."
Other travel-related reforms adopted by the House, which will go into effect March 1, include rules that will force lawmakers to pay full fare when traveling on corporate jets, effectively ending the practice of corporations offering deeply discounted airfares -- and thereby gaining special access -- to members of Congress. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, some one-day/one-night trips to speak or participate in a forum may be allowed; but even those short jaunts will need to approved in advance by the House Ethics Committee "to weed out any golfing junkets," says the Chronicle.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
