Democrats see no need to toughen House ethics

Their candidates ran on it. Their campaign chief said it gave them a Majority in the House of Representatives. Their Speaker vowed things would change on Day One.

Now, little more than six months into a Democrat Majority, the man charged with toughening House ethics’ rules says there’s "no political need" for reform, the Majority Accountability Project (www.majorityap.com) has learned.

U.S. Representative Mike Capuano, D-MA, tapped to chair a special House task force on ethics reform in January, made that startling admission during an interview with the Buffalo News published Monday. The article critiqued the Democrats’ slow pace in enacting promised reforms to end perceived abuses in Congress.

Noting that Capuano missed a May 1, 2007, deadline to propose an ethics overhaul, good government groups expressed concern that "the momentum for reform appears to be fading day by day." Capuano, the paper reported, "isn’t surprised" House Democrats have been unable to fulfill their pledge to make their first Majority in 12 years "the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history."

"I’ve never thought ethics as a political issue was much of an issue," Capuano told the News’ Jerry Zremski. "So there’s no political need [for reform]."

Capuano’s contention that ethics reform is not much a political issue would probably come as a surprise to U.S. Representative Rahm Emanuel, D-IL, who was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) during the 2006 elections.

"Every member or district that had an issue related to the professional conduct of that member switched and became Democratic," Emanuel said after Democrats claimed the Majority. "That was eight seats -- half of the 15 you needed."

Emanuel believed ethics was such a key political and campaign issue that he vowed on CBS’s Early Show the day after November 7th’s election that "one of the first votes (in the 100th Congress) will be on ethics reform."

TROUBLING PATTERN

In their short-time in power, House Democrats have repeatedly balked at living up to last fall’s campaign promises.

In May, Democrat leaders were reportedly stalling lobbying reform, with the Associated Press reporting that "now that they are running things, many Democrats want to keep the big campaign donations and lavish parties that lobbyists put together for them. They're also having second thoughts about having to wait an extra year before they can become high-paid lobbyists themselves should they retire or be defeated at the polls."

The 42-member freshmen class has been especially prone to breaking campaign promises on ethics and lobby reform.

In April, the Majority Accountability Project broke the story that the freshmen class tapped a longtime lobbyist to head their fundraising arm, despite pledges to reduce lobbyists’ access to members of Congress. Following that majorityap.com report, the lobbyist was removed as Custodian of the Democratic Freshmen PAC.

Freshmen Democrats also refused to enforce House rules against one of their own, U.S. Representative Jack Murtha, D-PA, after Murtha threatened a Republican colleague on the floor of the House of Representatives. Just days earlier, those same freshmen held a news conference to push for stronger ethics enforcement.

Many also came to the defense of Louisiana Democrat William Jefferson, currently under a 16-count federal indictment, for bribery, corruption and other charges. Those same freshmen voted to place Jefferson on the sensitive Homeland Security Committee, an appointment later rescinded after intense public pressure.