Posted on 10/23/2006 9:22:46 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The ethics scandals roiling Washington and the subsequent erosion of support for the Republican Party have had little impact on Rep. David Dreier.
The Glendora congressman and chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee appears poised to extend his quarter-century in the House of Representatives. Polls show him with a comfortable lead over Democratic challenger Cynthia Rodriguez Matthews in the predominantly Republican 26th District.
His nearly $2.3 million campaign war chest, the largest among the state's congressional incumbents, dwarfs Matthews' $67,000.
But despite his financial strength, political longevity and squeaky clean ethical track record, Dreier, like many lawmakers these days, still has to deal with the effects of the corruption scandals plaguing Congress. His appointment by House Speaker Dennis Hastert to spearhead the Republicans' ethics reform efforts at the beginning of the year has yielded less than stellar results. And the scandals keep on coming, from Ohio Rep. Bob Ney's impending imprisonment on graft charges to the unfolding congressional page scandal involving disgraced Florida Republican Mark Foley.
"I am very troubled with things, on both sides of the aisle," Dreier said. "But the system is working, these people are being weeded out."
He pointed to rule changes he championed to prevent former members of Congress who are registered lobbyists from accessing the House floor and to publicly list congressional earmarks as proof of progress in reforming Washington and limiting the influence of K Street.
"There is more to be done; it is a constant process," said Dreier, who has admitted that the changes made have not been as rigorous as he would have liked. "I will be looking to implement more reform measure when we begin the next Congress."
But the changes instituted by Dreier and the rest of the Republican leadership are too little, too late, said Jeff Millman, press secretary for the California Democratic Party.
"It is clear that Congressman Dreier has done virtually nothing to change the Republican culture of corruption in Congress, while his fellow Republicans have blocked most lobbying reform bills," said Millman. "Only the Democrats can change direction in Washington and clean up the mess the Republican party has created."
Matthews called Dreier's Republican-led reform effort a sham.
"If your party is caught up in scandals, it doesn't bode well for how deeply you are going to investigate yourself," said Matthews, who is confident of her chances despite an August SurveyUSA poll showing her trailing Dreier 48 percent to 35 percent. "What we really need to have is a true ethics committee, bipartisan and comprised of outsiders, like the 9/11 Commission."
What Congress should do is revive its Ethics Committee, which has been moribund for years, said David Menefee-Libey, a political science professor at Pomona College.
"You have people like Ney and (Rep. Randy Duke') Cunningham being found guilty of felonies, and you have the Ethics Committee like Sgt. Schultz in Hogan's Heroes' looking the other way," Menefee-Libey said.
But even as a recent Gallup poll shows Congress' approval rating at a horrendous 23 percent, and a Newsweek magazine survey indicates more people now favor Democrats than Republicans in the Nov. 7 midterms, Dreier said he is confident his party can retain control.
"Yes, we have gone through lots of difficulties, and at the end of the day we will probably lose a few seats, but I think we can keep that to a minimum," he said.
Dreier added that President Bush's low approval ratings should not affect GOP congressional candidates.
"There are people who are obviously unhappy with the president, and I don't agree with him on every issue," Dreier said. "But each of these campaigns feature an individual candidate who has been supportive of the president sometimes, and not on others."
Despite the ongoing scandals, voters are unlikely to penalize Dreier for his involvement in ethics reform, said Jonathan Wilcox, a Republican strategist based in Studio City and former speechwriter for Gov. Pete Wilson.
"Did David Dreier take a political risk through his very public involvement (in ethics reform)? Yes," said Wilcox. "But he navigated it well. I think the voters will look at it as involved service, as opposed to control of the ethics situation."
The race is a rematch of the 2004 election, when Dreier beat Matthews by 11 percentage points, the smallest margin of victory for a California incumbent that year.
"What happened last time is that there was a gross mischaracterization that I was a proponent of illegal immigration," said Dreier, referring to the "Fire Dreier" campaign initiated by the "John and Ken Show" on radio station KFI. He added that over the past two years he has worked with Sen. Dianne Feinstein to criminalize border tunneling, has supported a national ID card and is still working on tamper-proof Social Security cards.
"This time we have been able to point to my record, and I am very gratified that the voters have understood that those charges against me were lies," he said.
Okay - but where is the investigation of Harry Reid and his phony-baloney real estate deals; where is Hillary Clinton on her fraudulent campaign money and the lawsuits pending against her? Where is William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana and his criminal activity? That's just the tip of the ice burg - the biased MSM and pundits are just keeping the Foley mess alive when that man has stepped down/resigned. Reid never will, Clinton never will and Jefferson never will. Democrats are expected to lie, cheat and steal. Republicans are held to higher standards.
Interesting that the author of this article took the time to feature David Dreier, wichout mentioning Dreier's own baggage.
Maybe Drier was smart enough not to send sexually suggeestive IM's and emails to pages.
Yup. And smart enough to be seen in public with women such as Bo Derek.
Dreier is queerer than a $3 bill. But he's not stupid.
Prove it, liar.
Oh, come on. Dreier is perhaps the most flaming Member of Congress. His long time "partner" is a guy named Brad W. Smith.
There is NO proof. Just Internet smears happily repeated by members of the firm.
THE FIRM of Sully, Slam, B.Smirch, M.Pune, D.Stract, D.Grade, D.Vide, D.Stroy & Hugh Miliate
Democrats active on this forum, posing as conservatives.
LOL-LOL-LOL
Additional partners in the expanding Firm! It must be election time!!!!
Indeed ~ litiGATORS with very sharp teeth, always lurking in the Internet swamp.
FOTFLOL!
Thank God for Dreier's help in the Recall election.
His constituents are very happy with him, and I'd crawl through broken glass to have him as our congressman, instead of horrid Bob Filner.
So slime away. You only expose yourself.
Well, it worked for Loretta Sanchez Brixey (D-CA)
Dreir with Governor Arnold!!!!
California's political troubles in a nutshell.
No bias there. In this "scandal" no sex has been found (which would've been legal in D.C. anyway), no inappropriate conduct with pages, only those who were ex-pages including consensual sex with one 21 yr old.
There were NO sexually suggestive emails. There were IMs with FORMER pages. Let's try to stick to the facts and not fall for the MSM-Rat spin version.
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