The House ethics committee is springing into action, and no wonder.
Reps. William Jefferson of Louisiana and Bob Ney of Ohio, and disgraced former Rep. Duke Cunningham of California, are elephants in the room, their suspected activities too egregious for their colleagues to ignore.
Not that they haven’t tried.
Between federal prosecutors and the ethics panel, we hope to see some serious inroads against congressional corruption.
An 83-page affidavit accuses Jefferson, a Democrat, of offering to help a Virginia businesswoman win federal contracts to install telephone and Internet service in Nigeria and Ghana in exchange for 30 percent of the business.
Cunningham is serving time after pleading guilty to accepting bribes. Ney is under investigation in a criminal probe related to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Both are Republicans.
It’s about time the panel took action. The ethics committee is ending 16 months of inactivity artfully designed to benefit former GOP leader Tom DeLay. We have yet to hear about other lawmakers who might be ensnared by the Abramoff or Cunningham probes. DeLay has decided to cut and run, and committee leaders said they won’t investigate the Texas Republican since he’s leaving Congress. For DeLay to avoid House investigation is absurd and forces us to wonder whether the committee is serious about getting to the bottom of things.
Jefferson, a Harvard law school graduate and a member of the Ways and Means Committee, has been accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Last year, he was filmed taking $100,000 from an informant, $90,000 of which the FBI later found in his freezer. Jefferson has denied wrongdoing and has not yet been charged.
As colorful as Jefferson’s escapade is, it is among a broader pattern of corruption in Washington. Democratic Rep. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia was forced to give up his seat on the ethics committee after questions arose over whether he used his influence to direct $150 million in taxpayer money to hometown charities from which he might have benefited.
The House ethics panel has an invaluable opportunity to shine a spotlight on the corruption that we’ve heard about for months. There is a chance for institutional redemption, too – if the House is going to get itself in order, a vigorous ethics committee is a must.
