Black Congressional Caucus Tries To Neuter New Ethics Watchdog Group
Friday, June 4, 2010 at 8:32AM Washington Post story about the attempt by several members of the Black Congressional Caucus to neuter the recently created Office of Congressional Ethics. I'm guessing this would have been HUGE news had it been a bunch of white Republican looking to do the same.
TALK ABOUT BLAMING the messenger. The newly created Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent watchdog set up to review and, if warranted, forward ethics complaints to the official House ethics committee for further action, has taken its mission seriously. Too seriously, it seems, for the comfort of some lawmakers. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), joined by 19 other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, last week introduced a resolution that would essentially neuter the ethics board, making it more difficult for OCE to launch investigations and inform the public of its findings.
Ms. Fudge said in a statement that she acted to make the process fairer; OCE, she said, "is currently the accuser, judge and jury." It's not too hard to imagine other motivations for Ms. Fudge's concerns. Her chief of staff, Dawn Kelly Mobley, was admonished by the ethics committee for her role in helping a group of Black Caucus members improperly obtain an all-expenses-paid trip to the Caribbean -- this when Ms. Mobley was the ethics lawyer for Ms. Fudge's predecessor, the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and Ms. Tubbs Jones was chairing the ethics committee. Four of the lawmakers who went on the Caribbean trip signed on to Ms. Fudge's resolution: Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Donald Payne (D-N.J.) and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.).
Undercutting OCE's authority would be backsliding. The point of creating an outside watchdog was to prevent the ethics committee from sweeping things under the rug; all those on the committee are members of Congress. The panel is too often inclined not only to dismiss a complaint but to do so quietly, without airing the evidence. Lawmakers are understandably concerned that the ethics process not be used to tar them unfairly, providing fodder for attack ads in the next election, but there is also a public interest in full disclosure and robust enforcement. So far, the OCE -- which is made up of former members of Congress and experts chosen by the speaker and minority leader in equal numbers -- has proved a helpful force, and the ethics panel's unhappiness with the arrangement only underscores its importance.
The Fudge resolution would prevent the ethics committee from issuing any public statement in cases where the OCE recommends that a complaint be dismissed; the existing rule gives the ethics committee discretion to release information in such situations. Under the resolution, the OCE's report on the defense earmarks-for-campaign-contributions lobbying scandal involving the PMA Group would never have seen the light of day. Similarly, the resolution would prevent the release of any OCE report if, after an investigation by the ethics committee, a complaint's dismissal is recommended; under the current rule, the OCE report must be made public. This change would have prevented release of OCE's findings in the Caribbean trip.
In addition, the resolution would prevent the OCE from looking into any matter except on the basis of "a sworn complaint from a citizen asserting personal knowledge of any alleged violation." Currently, a preliminary review can be launched if two board members from differing parties ask for it. The board members are hardly rogue operators. That Ms. Fudge and friends fear their power to launch an investigation says less about the new ethics office than it does about the sponsors of this misguided resolution.
Reader Comments (9)
This is really outrageous. They clearly don't like the scrutiny they are receiving. I think we all know what play they make next. Uh-huh, the race card.
The black caucus continues to make themselves look like a den of thieves. If you aren't breaking the law, then you have nothing to hide.
Neutering the OCE is like putting the fox in charge ot the hen house. And isn't it just a coincidence that this fudge person's staff recently had their hand slapped for the disgraceful "paid for vacations" that some members of the black caucus mooched.
Want to make it "more fair"? Let's start putting hearings for these jerks on C-Span so all of the taxpayers can judge these people for themselves. And F(*& the race card!
Well put MichiganVet. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Being from around the Memphis, TN area, I can say that I'm so sick of the damn race card I could proudly shove it up whoever is waving it around's butt.
Like most other democrats, Fudge can't read. The OCE will review the complaints then forward them to a different group for action. They aren't the accuser, judge, jury. They aren't bringing the complaints forward, they're just reviewing them. READING IS FUNDEMENTAL.
Is there a White Congressional Caucus?
Speaking of neutering, I see about a dozen people in that picture that, for the good of humanity, should be neutered. I have a rusty spam can lid that should do the trick.
Do you recognize that worthless clown at the podium, Pundit, from your days in Charlotte? Maybe you were a child then, I don't remember.
I was gone before he got there HB. Who is the clown?
His name is Mel Watt, representing the 12th district of N.C.. He is extremely liberal, not very bright, but his district looks like you boozed up an earth worm, put it on a map and followed the trail of slime. He is unbeatable as long as his district follows that narrow zig zag that takes in the black areas of several cities.
Yeah, I've heard of him. Sounds like the district they carved out for that idiot Corrine Brown. It goes from Jacksonville to Orlando and is like a mile wide in some areas. A complete joke.