Posted on 11/05/2009 11:13:00 AM PST by jazusamo
The House ethics committee is likely to exonerate five members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) who were accused of taking an improper trip to the Caribbean, according to sources familiar with the case.
If this is true, we are not surprised. When we provided photographs and audio recordings from the trip at the request of the Committee in May, we made clear that our willingness to do so was not an endorsement of the Ethics Committee process, which has again proven to be a joke.
Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-NC), a member of the CBC, who was appointed just days after the CBC publicly objected to the probe, heads the investigation of the trip. He went on the same trip in a previous year.
Because the violations of House Rules by Rangel and Co. were so clear-cut, the Committee maintains its reputation for ineffectiveness. The Rules against corporate sponsorship of multi-day Congressional travel and hospitality were tightened at the behest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself in the wake of the Jack Abramoff golf trip to Scotland. The new Rules apparently do not trump partisan and racial double standards.
Last week, much was made of the leaked Ethics Committee document summarizing a variety of investigations that are purportedly underway, underscoring how corrupt Congress is. But Majority Leader Steny Hoyer spun it the other way, claiming that the memo showed that this Congress is the “most ethical” in history.
It doesn’t matter what the Ethics Committee investigates, if it does not take action. If it will not do anything about five members of Congress taking a junket to sunny St. Maarten, courtesy of Citigroup and other corporations, how is it ever going to deal the complicated cases of John Murtha’s “pay to play” empire and Charles Rangel’s tax evasion and hiding of assets?
The answer is that it can’t and probably will not.
On May 22, the House Ethics Committee asked me to provide photographs, audio recordings and other materials related to the trip by the following five House members: Charles Rangel (D-NY), Donald Payne (D-NJ), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI), Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Donna Christensen (D-VI).
On June 24, the Ethics Committee announced that it was investigating the trip, and that Butterfield, a member of the Committee, would lead the probe. The full Committee is chaired by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).
Flaherty is exactly right, Hoyer and the Ethics Committee are laughable trying to imply this Congress is the "most ethical" in history.
Rangle and the boys were at work
Besides the taxpayers weren’t hurt
It was just a junket
Who’d a thunk it
Charlie the Carribean Jerk
Good one! :-)
More melanin = free pass. The real losers, of course, are blacks, who get to keep their corrupt, self-interested fraudulent scumbags.
The Irish did the same in Boston. There was nothing a Dem Irish-American could do that would get him out of office. Curley was mayor of Boston...from jail.
Time to end ethnic politics.
His hiding of assets (property & bank accounts) and income on his tax returns will be more difficult for Congress to gloss over ... though I'm sure they'll try.
Amen, way past time.
Yep, they’ll probably try and those are things he should spend time in a fed slammer for, IMO.
It gets so disheartening to watch these official liars, cheaters and thieves get away with every thing. Eventually Good WILL triumph over evil but it sure is taking a while.....
Correct, it does get disheartening to see this time after time and the Dems covering for their corruption.
I believe you’re right about good eventually winning, the Dems keep digging the hole deeper and many people are tired of it, even many who’ve supported them.
I believe the election a year from now will be a wake up call for the Dem party and their corrupt members when they go down in flames.
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