McDermott ethics probe blocked, GOP aide says -WaTimes/DeLay's "defense"

[Rose Siding]

A 1997 charge against a House Democrat is 'the only open, active investigation sitting in the ethics committee,' a senior Republican leadership aide said yesterday, after the House majority leader accused committee Democrats of protecting one of their own.

The House ethics committee last year began looking into a complaint filed against Rep. Jim McDermott, Washington Democrat, over a 1997 incident in which he gave reporters an illegally recorded phone conversation among House members.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican and a recent target of Democrats' ethics charges, said in an interview with The Washington Times on Wednesday that he would be cleared by a committee investigation, but that Democrats are refusing to convene as a way of shielding Mr. McDermott.

?The Democrats have frozen the committee and have frozen the investigation, and it's helping one of their own,? the Republican aide said on the condition of anonymity. ?If the committee acts, would likely suffer consequences.?

Committee Democrats say they are objecting to changes in rules that they say are destroying the ethics investigation process. The House passed the changes last year......MORE.......

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050414-115251-4578r.htm

From another article on the same page...

snip>
"It is not about Democrats not cooperating," Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters yesterday. "It is about Republicans gutting the process to a point that any participation would be an accomplice to undermining an ethical standard in the House."

Democratic leaders also denied Mr. DeLay's assertion that their refusal to organize the committee is related to protecting Rep. Jim McDermott, the Washington Democrat who also faces ethical charges over the taping incident.

"The economy is reaching a soft patch, we have interest rates going up, and Mr. DeLay is blaming his problems on another member of Congress," Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, said in response to comments Mr. DeLay made Wednesday in an interview with The Washington Times. "I think the record speaks for itself."

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050415-124639-4228r.htm

[trotsky]

1. Damn that McDermott!

How DARE he try and let people know what's going on in THEIR Congress? :sarcasm:

Shit, how long did it take for the 'pukes to cook this excuse up?

[Pirate Smile]

2. Diary from Jim McDermott on Daily Kos on the history of the Ethics

Committee.

"The Fall of the House of Ethics
by Jim McDermott


Thu Apr 14th, 2005 at 21:05:39 PDT

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
— George Santayana
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- a.k.a. "Ethics" -- is embarked on a course that has been trod before.

Gather 'round the virtual bonfire, and I'll share a true tale of incestuous dealings, strange scratchings and foul odors emanating from behind stone walls, and things buried that refuse to die. I was there, I saw this with my own eyes, I have the scars to show for it, and the encounter haunts me to this very day.

more

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/15/0539/18393

[Rose Siding]

4. That Is WONDERFUL -That's MY Rep

:D McDermott's the best.

Can you even imagine any such explanation coming from a repub?

[oasis]

5. "Fearless" Jim McDermott. He gives 'em hell.

[BR_Parkway]

3. Well, let's get FAUX and the RW hate machine to start yelling for

open, televised hearings on the whole thing. Who do those "obstructionist" Democrats think they are, preventing honest and open government this way? Ever since Clinton...

</sarcasm>

[Straight Shooter]

6. We need more Senators like McDermott

He's a psychologist, right? You have to get up pretty damn early in the morning to put anything past him.