Disband the Ethics Committee

Remember the House Ethics Committee? No? That's understandable since it has been inactive for over a year. You may remember that the Republican leadership removed the former chair Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO) because he was running the panel fairly and with integrity and put in their lackeys led by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA). What is he a "doctor" of exactly? Protecting his ethically challenged colleagues? The Republicans did a courageous job of protecting Tom Delay on his way out of the House by blocking any ethics investigation of him.

I don't know why you would want to look into the nest of corruption from his office since his former press secretary Michael Scanlon and former deputy Chief of Staff Tony Rudy have pled guilty to felonies and his former chief of staff Ed Buckham is next to go up the river. Another Enron-like world. The top guy claims to have done nothing wrong and claims to have had no idea what was going on outside his office door. Maybe the first question to every member of congress is "Do you know what's going on in your office?" so as to prevent the "I had no idea" defense.

The ethics panel also failed to allow investigations of Republican Bob (a.k.a. Representative 1 in indictments) Ney of Ohio and Democrat William Jefferson from Louisiana. I mean what is the point at this point? The ethics committee is Washington D.C. in a nutshell. Conflicts of interests (the Republicans on the panel have donated to Delay's legal defense fund), partisan protectionism, firing of decent and impartial members, promotions of lackeys and poolboys, lengthy meetings that end up in deadlock, in short a total waste of time and money. Perfect.

Let the crooks continue to be crooked. Let the people decide (in theory since democracy has been hijacked and hotwired in incumbents' and the parties' favor) if they want their crook in congress. A government as good as its people is now more like a government as bad as its people. End the charade. Disband the ethics panel.