The Washington Post has this piece about the House ethics committee. It seems as if they are awakening from their slumber.
For more than four years the House ethics committee has stood virtually mute, acknowledging no inquiries into alleged wrongdoings except for the slam-dunk case against Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. (D-Ohio) -- who already had been convicted and sentenced to federal prison for bribery in 2002.That changed Wednesday night, however, when the secretive panel known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct announced the start of a "full and complete inquiry" into claims by Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.). Smith said last fall that unnamed GOP colleagues had tried to bribe him into voting for the contentious Medicare prescription drug bill on Nov. 22 by promising campaign help to his son, who is running to replace his retiring father.
I mentioned Rep. Smith yesterday. It has taken long enough to look into this. During Clinton's years there were multiple tax-payer funded investigations into President Clinton and other Democrats. Congress has been very silent since January 2001. This time, we have very serious things to look into. Rep. Smith's bribery claim, the Valerie Plame CIA leak, intelligence failures, and 9/11 just to name a few.
But this administration has show it's penchant for slowing things down. Anytime the word "investigation" is mentioned, they go into shout-down mode. "How dare you ask about the President's military records. Don't you know we're fighting a war on terror?"
All these investigations that are taking place might just be window dressing. Democrats don't have any real power in Congress, so it's up to Republicans to allow these investigations to take place.
Meanwhile in the Capitol, few people seemed to think the Smith investigation would land anyone in trouble. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) said there is nothing extraordinary about a lawmaker observing to a colleague that party loyalists might help his son's campaign if the legislator backs the party on a big vote."I fail to see that as a bribe," Davis said. "Nick thought he could get some mileage out of this, and some mileage for his son."
Maybe not, but you know that if the situation was reversed, Republicans would be appointing an Independent Council.