Good News and Bad for Congressional ‘Ethics’
by Tom FittonThe Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), the most important ethics reform for the House in a generation, appears to be safe from being disbanded for now. While Republican leadership has never liked the idea of the OCE, this was the right thing to do.
Of course, the OCE’s work will be for naught if the House Ethics Committee ignores its recommendations, which is exactly what happened last week in the per diem scandal.
In March 2010, Judicial Watch sent a letter to the OCE requesting a full investigation of members of Congress who illegally pocket leftover per diem travel funds. (House rules mandate all leftover per diem funds be returned.)
“In the least, there is evidence of a general misunderstanding among lawmakers that unused per diems may be converted for personal use. At worst, members may be illegally pocketing taxpayer funds,” Judicial Watch stated in its letter of complaint, while noting it is a federal criminal offense to convert public money for personal use.
The OCE did its job well — investigating the matter and recommending the House Ethics Committee pursue its own investigation. The OCE investigation focused on six Members of Congress: Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL); Rep. G.K. Butterfield ( D-NC); Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY); Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL); Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX); and Rep. Joe Wilson, (R-SC). But that’s not going to happen.
According to The Washington Post:
The House ethics committee has decided not to pursue an investigation of lawmakers’ use of travel stipends, despite findings from an independent ethics board that six members of Congress improperly kept or spent money estimated to total $7,575.
But wait, here’s the truly confounding part, as related by the Post:
In recommending a dismissal of the matter, ethics committee staffers wrote that although the lawmakers admitted to using per diem money for gifts, which “the Committee would agree would not be appropriate, there is no evidence that per diem was actually used for such expenses.”
No evidence? Members of Congress admitted to the wrongdoing. Rep. Aderholt said he used the money to buy t-shirts for his son, postcards, a wallet and some leather goods. All at taxpayer expense. That’s what he told investigators. Since when is a full confession not considered evidence of misconduct? Only in Washington, DC.
This decision by the House Ethics Committee is astonishing. (You can read the full House Ethics Committee report here.)
Unfortunately, this is not the only bad news I have to report regarding ethics in the House of Representatives (or lack thereof).
There are now credible reports of apparent corruption by members of the House Ethics Committee themselves! And this alleged corruption is benefiting the contemptible partners-in-crime, Maxine Waters and Barney Frank. Waters was set to be tried by the Committee months ago, but the probe has been thrown off the rails.
The Washington Post politely contends the recent ethics morass is due to “infighting” among committee members over how to proceed with the investigation of Waters, described by the Post as “one of the most prominent investigations” ever undertaken by the committee. (As you may recall, this probe involves Waters’ efforts to secure a TARP grant for the failing OneUnited Bank, in which her husband had a significant investment. Click here to read evidence of the criminal behavior uncovered by Judicial Watch.)
But the problem isn’t infighting at all. It’s obstruction by then-House Ethics Committee Chairman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who appears to be sabotaging the Waters investigation at every turn. (Lofgren remains on the committee, the membership of which is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.)
According to the professional committee staff leading the investigation, Lofgren has refused to issue subpoenas for records related to the scandal, instead waiting for “voluntary compliance” on the part of Waters and her co-conspirator, Rep. Barney Frank. (Click here to read more on Frank’s participation.)
Then, after hamstringing the committee by refusing to allow the subpoenas, Lofgren delayed the ethics committee hearing, blaming the staff for “failing to collect needed documents,” the Post reported. (Despite Lofgren’s stonewall tactics, committee staff told Lofgren they were prepared to move forward with a hearing immediately, but to no avail.)
Lofgren also reportedly told staff members they must shorten their presentation of the evidence from 30 hours, which they requested, to just 6 hours, which they said would compromise their ability to present a “fair, thorough and effective” case.
By the way, slipped into the end of the Post’s account of the Waters investigation is one very important detail. The person on Waters’ staff who was “at the center of her office’s interactions with OneUnited,” was none other than her own grandson and Chief of Staff, Mikael Moore. (This OneUnited scandal is a true “family affair” for Waters.) Moore, for his part, refuses to comply with a subpoena for emails from his private account that might provide further evidence of corruption.
As a result of Lofgren’s shenanigans, House Ethics Committee staff have resigned or been put on paid leave. Maxine and Barney must be laughing.
We appreciate that the Tea Party Congress kept the Office of Congressional Ethics. Now it needs to fix the awful Ethics Committee. True to our non-partisan and educational mission, Judicial Watch assisted then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team as they tried to reform the House ethics process. Our partnership resulted in the establishment of the Office of Congressional Ethics. We stand ready to help Speaker Boehner and his team in any reform effort.
Clearly we have our work cut out for us in 2011.
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36 Comments
Putting Rangel in prison for tax evasion would be a giant leap towards "Congressional Ethics".
Frankly I think this is necessary, these people need to be held to account and made to pay for their wrongdoing. The slackers and the representatives of the elites, the statists just need to be voted out. The truly corrupt – the thieves and criminals need to be in prison.
"Clearly we have our work cut out for us in 2011."
Indeed, it seems the place is lousy with the scumbags. Chuckie Schmuckie, I am looking at you.
An admission of guilt is not evidence of guilt?
lol
Where are the IRS penalties?
Failure to File Penalty
The failure-to-file penalty is calculated based on the time from the deadline of your tax return (including extensions) to the date you actually filed your tax return. The penalty is 5% for each month the tax return is late, up to a total maximum penalty of 25%. The percentage is of the tax due as shown on the tax return. If your tax return is more than five months late, simply multiply your balance due by 25% to calculate your failure to file penalty.
Failure to Pay Penalty
The failure-to-pay penalty is calculated based on the amount of tax you owe. The penalty is 0.5% for each month the tax is not paid in full. There is no maximum limit to the failure-to-pay penalty. The penalty is calculated from the original payment deadline (the original April 15th filing deadline) until the balance due is paid in full.
Interest
Interest is calculated based on how much tax you owe. Interest rates change every three months. Currently, the IRS interest rate for underpayment of tax is 4% per year. The interest is calculated for each day your balance due is not paid in full.
IRS interest rates are variable and are set quarterly.
"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves."
George Washington
That's what this election was all about,if the corruption continues we will see some major gatherings in DC this year,keep the spot light on this issue and keep us informed,this BS has to stop NOW!
The Office of Congressional Ethics? Oh please… it's a joke. If the corrupt people in congress were in the private sector they would be given long prison sentences for what they have done. Barney Frank comes to mind with regards to Fannie and Freddie. He should be in jail.
Ordinary citizen Wesley Snipes is doing time for non payment of taxes. Corrupt congressman Cholly Rangle is laughing his butt off for non payment of taxes. Is there a double standard…you bet!
Most of us have heard this saying, letting the fox guard the hen house. It is very fitting right now. All of us knows what happens as well.
NO WONDER THESE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ARE TARGETED, THEY ARE JUST CROOKS OF THE FIRST MAGNITUDE STEALING THE HARD EARNED MONEY WE EARN.
EFF THEM ALL . I HAVE NO USE FOR ANY OF THEM
I'm convinced that if every politician over the past 40 years was to be held accountable for fraud, illegal kickbacks/campaign contributions, lying, and general thievery…….not very many would escape a lengthy jail sentence.
Courts across the land should free all those innocent prisoners who confessed to a crime.
Office of Congressional Ethics, now there's a contradiction in terms. I doubt there's anyone in congress that even knows
the meaning of the word "ethics".
Clean House! Disband the Office of Congressional Ethics, and let these Career Criminal Politicians stand before a regular Judge and Jury to receive their justice! There won't be enough jails to hold them! and we can replace them with Tea Party Republican Constitutionalists!
Toss Rangle and Obama's cabinet full of tax evaders in jail as they would ordinary citizens.
Remove Congressional exemption from Obamacare starting with Nazi Pelosi.
Many in Congress need to be put in Prison.
Having an entire group of people who are above the Law is the problem.
A Congress the size of the Congress of the United States of America there should be at least 1 sitting Member a quarter going to Prison for a very long time.
"Ethics" and The "House of Representatives"……. not used very often in the same sentence. It's no wonder they all share a 7% approval rating.
Of course being a Hollywood idiot chances are he votes statist as well, (assuming so) hope he is happy.
yes, they will regulate themselves ethically…
Something about 'monkeys flying out of one's butt' comes to mind. Or, if we, the people, keep throwing enough of the useless bastards out of office until they get a clue and realize they don't LEAD us.
We HIRE them. And they- and all bureacrats who would like to become a 'protected minority' would do well to remember that…
Members of Congress are ethically challenged. They forget they are the stewards of the tax dollars and should be protecting taxpayers from ethics violations.
Isn't congressional ethics an oxymoron?
The best path to ethical government is to reduce it to it's legal, enumerated powers. If that were done Congress wouldn't have much in the way of opportunities for corruption, and thus, would be more ethical.
Courts across the land should free anyone convicted of a federal crime that isn't enumerated in the Constitution.
Which isn't many.
Criminal prosecution was meant to be a state and local responsibility. Indeed, originally there was only ONE Federal crime when our country was set up, and that was Treason.
Expansion of federal crimes has been one of the avenues that the Feds have used to expand federal authority. For example, kidnapping wasn't a federal crime until the 1930's, when they seized a crisis, the Lindburgh Baby kidnapping, to tap national outrage over an infamous crime to seize authority to pursue and prosecute it. Same with bank robbing, that wasn't a federal crime either until the same period. The FBI more or less came into being and mushroomed into a huge operation due to these power grabs.
Congressional misconduct has much more legitimate status as a federal crime (since they are federal officers) than most of the things the Feds prosecute these days. Oath breaking for federal officers (ie: everyone who takes the oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution) should be a federal crime, supreme court justices INCLUDED…
The Feds also prosecute "crime" at times in the same way they blackmail the states into their unconstitutional mandates. For example, did you know the FCC doesn't actually levy fines? They don't… They call them "notices of apparent liability". They are unenforceable in court. The only enforcement mechanism for them is that they can deny a license renewal, so really, only FCC license holders ever have to pay fines, which are then called "VOLUNTARY contributions to the Federal Treasury" I kid you not. "Pirate" broadcasters commonly get NAL's when busted, but the FCC can't force them to be paid, nor can they even arrest a pirate, they don't have the authority.
BOEHNER LOSES HIS BALLS AGAIN.
This establishment RINO has got to go.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/01/11/quotes-of-t...
In the real world we wouldn't stand before a peer group of our accomplices. Rather, we would stand before a peer group of fellow citizens in a grand jury.
Perhaps utilizing a grand jury is a philosophy which should be considered here.
I think there are a couple! Bachmann, West, and well, I can't think of anyone right now.
If any "non-congressional" citizen was found guilty of what Rangel was found guilty of, They'd be in JAIL.
Congressional ethics? Where?
Congressional ethics are like oil and water. They are incompatible. Congress exists to collect bribes (campaign contributions) in exchange for favorable legislation. Anyone who thinks his representative is in Washington to "fight for him" (whatever that means) is as dumb as a box of rocks. The system is so corrupt I can smell it from 10,000 miles away.
"(House rules mandate all leftover per diem funds be returned.)"
Really?! Back when I worked for FEMA, one of the perks that made the job bearable was living cheap – usually easy to do when you work from sunup to sundown in a disaster area – so that we could bank the per diem difference. It was one of the things that made months long deployments tolerable.
Is this a recent rule? Because, if per diem is calculated the same for members of congress as it is for GS employees, I'm not sure I agree with it.
Those that write and enforce the laws of the land should be held to a higher standard then a common citizen. Any impropriety should disqualify them from serving in government and should bring down the maximum penaltys to make an example for the rest of us. " Lead by example" should be the motto for legislators, police and judges, not to mention the president and his staff, otherwise the system risk collapse from corruption. Anything less is criminal.
In what other world but politics can you commit numerous ethical and criminal violations and simply walk away and never be held accountable simply by resigning or not being reelected? Not holding the office any longer does not shield you from presecution.
AT a time when we are being told Baby Boomers will be retiring at a rate of 10,000 a day, each one expecting SS, Medicare and Medicaid. Here we have an OEC so out of touch they don't recognize the symbolism such passe creates with the American people?
Soon we are going to be told the US Government cannot honor their commitment to SS. Yet the rampant waste goes on no matter how small or significant.
Government officials swore with an oath yet wasting tax payer money, enriching themselves will retire with full benefits and will watch through their decedent windows as the rest of us are told the Government has run out of money.
The money we paid over a life time of working and being taxed.
I don't care if it is $100 bucks if they get caught ignorance of the law is no excuse.
MAKE THEM PAY IT BACK!
(shall I say at risk of right wing rhetoric OR ELSE?)
Or ELSE we VOTE THEM OUT (what did you think I meant?)
Why do I feel that no corruption within congress will ever be resolved or that whatever is will only result in a light hand slap? No govt agency or group will ever truly punish its own. The fear of political reprisal is to great. Not one of those bottom feeders wishes his/her rice bowl broken or the inability to secure a lucrative job with a lobbying group after they leave congress.
This is a perfect example of the class system in our country! Laws apply ONLY to us 'regular' citizens, not to the all-mighty politicians! They are above the law.
They don't have to participate in Social Security, nor NObamaCare. Its a higher crime to threaten, attack, kill a politician (Fed worker), than it is to do the same thing to a 'regular' citizen. They have violated their oaths of office and should ALL be voted out or sent to jail for every violation of their oath.
"All men are created equal"!!!!
Bill Clinton goes free, Rangle goes free, Martha Stewart goes to jail..she's not a PROTECTED POLITICIAN with Special Rights and Priveleges not afforded to 'Regular' American People..
Don't forget Chris Dodd..
That's what they WANT You to Think..Let them think they are free, we control All thier money and controll all of them…
Expanding government only serves to open up a new hiding place for corruption.
Committees, commissions, boards, delegations, agencies, departments and every other tool used to complicate the process serves only the corruption itself.
We must end the further creation of, and eliminate the existing, tools of plausible deniability.
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