Reply #14: I know, huh! WHOO HOO!

[ClayZ]

TURN TURN TURN!

I am serious, for my parents this is HUGE! They are in Doc Hastings Distric.

I call them every morning, so this morning he said they were going to fill out their mail in ballots.
I said don't do it untill you read your EMAIL. I sent this:

Washington Post

The House ethics committee, the panel responsible for upholding the
chamber's ethics code, has been virtually moribund for the past year,
handling only routine business despite a wave of federal investigations into
close and potentially illegal relationships between lawmakers and lobbyists.
.
The committee's last formal action of note was its recommendation to
admonish former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) for the second and
third times in 2004. Since then, the committee has been crippled.

Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) was ousted as the ethics chairman early this
year by House GOP leaders. His successor, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), has
been slow to take up the reins because of disputes between Republicans and
Democrats over the panel's rules. Hastings and Mollohan also feuded for
months about the makeup of the professional staff.

It has been a year since Hastings took the reigns, and the House Ethics
Committee still doesn't have a chief of staff on the job, nor even begun the
process of hiring investigators. During that time at least seven lawmakers
have been indicted, pleaded guilty, or are under investigation for
conspiracy, fraud, campaign finance violations, and other improper conduct.
Last week Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif) resigned from Congress after
pleading guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion, and the other Washington is
abuzz with rumors of lawmakers, spouses, and aides entangled in the growing
scandals surrounding lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon.

Government watch dog groups from across the ideological spectrum are
decrying the Committee's failure to act, and the erosion in public trust
that has resulted.

"There is no ethics enforcement in Congress today, and it's
inexcusable," sad Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative
monitor of government ethics.

"No matter what level of corruption the members of Congress engage in,
the ethics committees do nothing," agreed Melanie Sloan, executive director
of the liberal-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
"It's a national embarrassment."

This is Hastings' committee, and by failing to act he is complicit in the
corruption he is responsible for investigating and punishing. The citizens
of WA's 4th Congressional District deserve to know the crucial role their
congressman is playing in preserving our Capitol's crooked money machine.
The citizens of the 4th District deserve a better congressman.

~~~~~~~~~

I guess that was all it took!