The House Ethics Committee is a corruption-enabling cesspool
You know it. I know it. And everyone disgusted with the culture of corruption in Washington needs to make their voices heard on it. The watchdogs are crippled. CYA is the order of the day. The Beltway has changed nothing since the GOP scandals and is still acting blind, deaf, and dumb toward the Democrat scandals.
USA Today weighs in on the pathetic, corruption-enabling cesspool known as the House Ethics Committee:
What does it take for a member of Congress to get in real trouble with the House ethics committee?
Quite a lot.
In fact, only one lawmaker — Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. — has merited even a wrist slap since Democrats were swept into the majority in 2007 on a wave of voter revulsion to scandals engulfing Republicans in Congress. Back then, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through more stringent rules, vowed stricter enforcement and famously promised to “drain the swamp.”
Well, she’s going to need a bigger pump.
So far, the supposedly invigorated bipartisan House ethics committee has:
– Handed down its limpest discipline, an “admonishment,” after finding that Rangel had taken two free trips to Caribbean conferences even though he should have known that big corporations indirectly financed them in violation of House rules.
The committee has yet to finish reviewing Rangel’s more serious ethical problems, such as glaring omissions on his congressional financial disclosure statements. (Pending the outcome, Rangel has taken a “leave of absence” from his powerful post as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.)
– Exonerated five others who took the same trips as Rangel. The committee bought their stories that they didn’t know about corporate sponsorship. Funny, conference photos show lawmakers standing in front of a bunch of corporate logos. Maybe they were blinded by the Caribbean sun.
– Essentially gave lawmakers a go-ahead to solicit campaign donations from business executives and lobbyists who apparently believe they’re paying for federal contracts. Last month, the committee cleared seven members despite the findings by an independent investigative panel that two of them — Reps. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. — might have tacitly tied requests for campaign donations to legislative earmarks profiting specific companies.
As I pointed out last week, the ethics committee steamrolled the OCE in the Pete Stark case.
USAT adds:
The Democrats like to point out that they created an independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate allegations, recommend action to the ethics committee and issue public reports. But they promptly emasculated their new creation by failing to give it subpoena power and ignoring its findings in several cases, despite evidence that members violated House rules.
No teeth, no reform. No reform, no change. The swamp overfloweth.
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Categories: Corruption,Nancy Pelosi
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The entire District of Corruption needs to be flushed.
I’m coming to the conclusion that the system has become so rigged with ACORN, et al, that the voters can’t do the job with elections…………
And in other news, the ocean contains a great deal of water.
Film at 11.
It’s just a smokescreen.
Washington D.C. and the federal regime it houses is nothing but one big barf bag.
Once again: hard jail time is the only thing to stop these crooks. As long as the fox rules the chickenhouse we will have to live with this. The Dems are the absolute worst because they view themselves as entitled. Combine that attitude with the perpetually persecuted minority caucus and you have a real disaster.
I especially like how, in Congress, they call law violations ethic violations and they go before an ethics committee instead of a federal grand jury.
How nice it must be for the elitists in D.C. How can the people of this country continually send those crooks back to Washington? It numbs the mind.
Looking at these flaming, haughty and arrogant piss-ant crooks, we should apologize to California Republican Randy Cunningham and have him released from prison immediately. Expunge his record while we’re at it.
Un-Freaking-Believeable….
I really wonder how much longer stuff like this can continue. Someone once said, “When a Trend Cannot Continue, It Stops.”
And it was Margaret Thatcher who said ,“The trouble with socialism is that it runs out of other people’s money.”
In this case the latter is going to lead to the former and it will probably happen quite abruptly.
I am not sure who these people are but the first glance at their web site is interesting: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5419/pub_detail.asp
If Rangel were a no vote on corruptOcare it would be Charley melting down and then playing the wiseguy down low on the Beck show.
Nancy Pelosi,
Since she lied about what the Bible says, she’ll lie about anything!
She also lied when she certified that Obama is legally qualified to serve under the provisions of the United States Constitution.
How is a candidate whose own campaign web site talked about “his Kenyan citizenship” legally qualified to serve as President and Commander in Chief under the provisions of the United States Constitution?
How can anyone who has ever been a subject or citizen of a foreign country be legally qualified as a “natural born citizen” of the United States?
Address the issue of Obama’s ineligibility, and you get two-for-one:
you can remove both Obama and Pelosi at the same time.
It seems even the “pro-American” democrats, hard working, country loving, moderate, liberals have no qualms about the illegal activities of their law breaking legislators. Have they no morals, no feeling of being betrayed, must not, then again they are demorats.
The answer to all these questions comes down to this…the brainwashing of generations of our kids. It’s that simple. While we were busy making money, having two jobs, leaving the education of our kids to the government-run public schools, we were oblivious to the fact that they were teaching the progressive agenda to our kids. The result?? Those kids have grown up and are now making the decisions on what goes into the textbooks, they are teaching in the schools and the universities, they are making the movies in Hollywood, writing the rap music, making the disgusting videos, and RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT! That is the answer in a nutshell. The people in charge were brainwashed in the schools while we were trusting that they were being educated. There is no changing them. All we can do is TAKE BACK OUR KID’S EDUCATION!! Try to save the next generation coming up and maybe, just maybe we can get back on track in a couple decades…unless it is already too late. I will be watching very closely what my grandkids are learning in school. They are just starting out. I will be there!!
Congress doesn’t trust anybody to police themselves, why should they be the exception?
It must be embarrassing for Pelosi to be this incompetent.
The country needs a massive enema … it needs to be applied to Washington, D.C. in November by the citizens of this Great Republic …
We must take it on ourselves to impose the term limits they won’t pass for us by refusing to let anyone serve so long it becomes a “career” … we will all be better off for the effort … personally I think 2 terms in the Senate and 4 terms in the House should be the limit … along with ending the “retirement” program for serving there … they can pay into Social Security like everyone else …
The founding fathers never anticipated nor intended that there would be people that would spend their entire adult lives in the government …
That is why they talked of a government made up of “citizen representatives” … people taking time away from their personal lives to serve their fellow citizens and then returning home to resume their personal lives … letting someone else serve …
Until we can return to that type of representation the turmoil in DC will continue …
Term limits followed by a requirement to move back to their old district for five years, and no lobbyist work for ten. Or something.
That’s just one of the reasons we homeschool.
My thoughts exactly. Great minds think alike.
Rahm (aka Woody)Emanuel: “Hey gang, let’s go skinny -dipping!”
Exactly right.
I applaud you for that. Unfortunately, most parents can’t do that. Either for economic reasons, or they are just not fit to teach. It does take a certain kind of ability to do that. There aren’t nearly enough parents able to home school to make a huge difference. And private schools are so expensive. We need to fight within the school system. Everyone needs to get involved in what they are teaching our kids, by checking the text books and complaining loud and clear if they are pushing an agenda. Also, set your kids straight when they get home each day and teach them to be critical thinkers!
I’d like pay raises tied to the budget, too.
Increase the deficit, no raise. Decrease the deficit, raise.
I’m just glad that my job is such that we can. (In fact, with my crazy work and travel schedule, homeschooling is better.) That and our school district is messed up.
I wish you much success in your endeavor. If more people were like you, there wouldn’t be near as much need for home/private schooling.
Some thoughts on this matter from some old dead guys:
Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778
***
Maybe we could rename the “Ethics” committee the WHITEWASH Committee.
***
Jail time and term limits should fix the problems. Charlie Rangel will look great in a snappy orange jumpsuit doing the “perp” walk. Ditto for corrupt RINO’s.
***
John Bibb
***
The ethics problems in Congress can be tied to directly to a lack of “Religion and morality”.
We have removed what President George Washington called “indispensable supports” to “political prosperity”.
The majority of Congress is both spiritually and politically bankrupt. So it should come as no surprise that they are fast leading the U.S.A. to financial bankruptcy.
President Washington questioned their patriotism, and so do I.
We will never get our elected representatives to pass term limits on themselves, that is a pipe dream.
WE have to impose term limits on them, at the ballot box.
Ending racial gerrymandering would go a long way toward ridding ourselves of the worst members, Maxine Waters, John Conyers, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Bobby Scott, Charley Rangel. There are plenty of capable black Americans whom I’d be proud to vote for, but the aformentioned aren’t among them.