Not that I would ever say Democrats are disingenuous, but when they were looking to wrest control of Congress from Republicans way back in 2006 on a pledge to “drain the swamp,” a reference to political corruption, something just didn’t add up. It’s not as though Democrats have the moral high-ground on ethics in a historical context.
Now we know why there was good reason to be more than skeptical. According to Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan over at Politico, the Congressional Black Caucus (not a single Republican is a member of the Caucus) is looking to strip power away from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). The OCE was “created by House Resolution 895 of the 110th Congress in March 2008” and is governed by “private citizens” to act as a watchdog over Congress.
The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing a resolution to “curtail” OCE’s power.
• “The resolution would curtail the OCE’s power to comment publicly on cases that it dismisses; preclude the release of OCE findings if the ethics committee dismisses a complaint; prevent the ethics committee from receiving reports from the OCE in the 60-day window before a primary or general election involving an accused member and require public complaints to come from witnesses with firsthand knowledge of alleged wrongdoing.” (Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan, “Lawmakers Seek To Gut Ethics Office,” Politico, 6/10/10)
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