Wednesday, October 28, 2009

This'll be Fun to Watch

From the Hill:
OCE, House ethics committee fight over release of document

By Susan Crabtree - 10/27/09 07:34 PM ET
The House ethics committee and a new entity created to help it police lawmakers are engaged in the first major showdown in an ongoing turf war.

Board members and staff of the quasi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) laid down the gauntlet this week and challenged the ethics committee to meet a Friday deadline or face the consequences.

Watchdogs also joined the OCE in demanding that the ethics committee on Friday release the OCE’s original report on ethics charges against two members: Reps. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
They called it a critical test of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) commitment to raising ethical standards in Congress.
Normally we would expect Madam Speaker to dismiss those "watchdogs," tarring them as "right-wing extremists" or similar. That may prove difficult in this case considering they are the following radical-right organizations: U.S. PIRG, Public Citizen, Common Cause, Campaign Legal Center, the League of Women Voters and Democracy 21.

What a treat it will be watching our intellectually-challenged Speaker wriggle her way out of this one.

(Thanks to For What it's Worth.)

No comments: