Free Republic

The probe, likely to be rigorous, would be carried out behind closed doors by the Senate Ethics Committee's professional, nonpartisan staff. It could take months, and might come up empty or conclude with an "admonishment" — essentially a slap on the wrist. The committee could also recommend that the full Senate vote on a motion to "censure" Moore or expel him from Congress. “If he were to be elected, he would immediately have an issue with the Ethics Committee that they would take up,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday during a Capitol Hill news conference.

Members of the House ethics committee, who are investigating a pattern of lawmakers steering federal funds to generous defense contractors, are all set to have their pet military projects funded by the same committee whose activities they are probing. The 10 committee members together would get 29 earmarks -- or $59 million in federal funding for projects they requested in their districts or states -- under a proposed House military spending bill up for a vote today or tomorrow. The details were approved last week by the House defense appropriations subcommittee, whose practice of steering earmarks to a well-connected lobby...