After 16 months of “political gridlock,” the House Ethics Committee finally got the vital missing piece it needed in order to begin investigating Bob Ney and other Republicans involved with both Jack Abramoff and Inmate Duke Cunningham: a dirty Democrat.
The committee waited to investigate U.S. Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who has “stink” written all over him until — praise Jesus! — they uncovered equally fetid Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.). CNN:
The simultaneous investigations of Ney and Jefferson give a bipartisan tone at a time when Democrats are trying to make a campaign issue out of Republican misconduct.
The committee of five Republicans and five Democrats had been in a partisan deadlock since the beginning of last year. The House GOP leadership removed two GOP members of the committee and the Republican chairman after they had admonished DeLay for his conduct. Since then, the committee has fought over committee rules and staffing, and failed to get a sixth vote to begin any investigation.
Members of the committee added that they would have investigated Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) if he had just been patient and waited for a defiled Democrat like the rest of them. Instead, he opted not to face the voters this fall, denying the glacial Ethics Squad potentially their biggest prize.
“But for his imminent resignation from the Congress … we would have recommended to our colleagues on the committee the formation of an investigative subcommittee to conduct a formal inquiry into those allegations,” [committee members] Berman and Hastings said.
Well darn. Who would have thought letting nearly a year and a half go by without acting would have consequences? But then again, Jefferson was worth waiting for. Now Republicans everywhere can hold him up as living proof that we are just as bad as they are. I mean, a 434 to 1 ratio pretty well speaks for itself, don’t you think?
