Filed under: Breaking, Conservatives, Corruption, Government, House, IOKIYAR, Progressives, Scandal | Tags: Congress, Corruption, Ethics, House, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Roadblock Republicans, Scandal, Shame
Are there any Republicans in Congress who aren’t absolutely corrupt? I know the GOP has a culture of corruption, but now they’re resorting to blatant political extortion. Think Progress reports:
In 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pushed forward on her pledge to run the most ethical Congress in history and established the House Ethics Enforcement Task Force. She charged the group with setting up an Office of Congressional Ethics, an “independent ethics panel” composed of six “nonpartisan professional staff” members who were jointly appointed by the Speaker and Minority Leader. Lawmakers and lobbyists would be barred from serving.
The House is expected to vote on the task force’s proposal on Thursday. Even though this committee will be independent and nonpartisan, the GOP is already resisting. In an attempt to dissuade Democrats from voting for the ethics office, senior House Republican aides are drawing up a hit list of 10 Democratic lawmakers who would be pursued with ethics investigations if the measure passes. National Journal reports (sub. req’d):
Senior House Republican aides are drawing up a list of Democrats to target if the House votes Thursday to create an independent panel to weigh ethics complaints against lawmakers.
In a move that one top Democratic lawmaker called “political extortion,” House GOP aides said Tuesday the names of more than 10 Democrats are likely to end up on the list and that investigations would be pursued against all of them.
It is not clear how much support House Republican leaders are giving to the staff effort, but several GOP leadership aides who were asked about the list said they were aware of it.
In other words, if the House investigates real corruption complaints against Republicans, then the Republicans will file a bunch of fake ethics complaints against Democrats, all in an effort to muddy the Congressional waters.
John Boehner and his Roadblock Republicans are clearly afraid–they’re so corrupt they know any attempt to investigate Congressional ethical lapses will result in more GOP indictments.
And their threat to extort Democrats is transparent partisan nonsense. If the GOP knows of legitimate ethical problems among Democrats, they’d have filed complaints already. They’ve got nothing–and they know it–so they’re resorting to this.
We Democrats won’t go back on our promise to establish the cleanest Congress in American history. f the Republicans want to tie up Congress and waste taxpayer dollars to pursue bogus ethics complaints against Democrats, so be it–the American people want a clean Congress, and they won’t tolerate this type of shameful politicking.
