Democrats Consider Outside Ethics Panel: Independent Congressional watchdog breaks with tradition

NYT: Democrats Consider Outside Ethics Panel
By CARL HULSE
Published: December 13, 2006

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — House Democrats are seriously exploring the creation of an independent ethics arm to enforce new rules on travel, lobbying, gifts and other issues that Democrats intend to put in place on taking power next month.

Senior party officials said Tuesday that Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the incoming speaker, had consulted with Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the minority leader, on forming a bipartisan group to examine outside enforcement. The goal would be to have the group report back in the spring.

An independent Congressional watchdog, if approved, would be a major break with tradition. Some lawmakers say House and Senate members have sole responsibility for policing themselves when it comes to internal rules.

Some lawmakers have said an independent entity could be unconstitutional.

The Democratic officials, who spoke only if they were not publicly identified because the proposal for the new panel was now being presented to lawmakers, said the prominence of corruption as a concern in the elections last month gave new impetus to such an idea....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/washington/13ethics.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

It's difficult to see how the House or the Senate can outsource the enforcement of their own internal rules. (Not laws, rules. Big difference.)

who established their own rules, and a review of any incidents of breaking those rules wouldn't affect the general populaltion, but only that group.

I think this is a terrific idea, because OBODY wants to be on the ethics committee! It's kind of like working Internal Affairs at the police dept. EVERYBODY HATES YOU!

I'm not quite sure who they could get to be on that panel, because everyone is biased to some degree. someone like the guy who's always on cspan and heads the CBO would be great. Every time I hear him speak, he talks very straight forward and doesn't try to hide anything!

A panel like this would be a lot better than a group of your fellow House members having to feel like they were ratting out friends.

I can just see a panel with Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, and Tom Delay, it would not only be useless it would be worse than the current mess.

Now put people like Ralph Nader and Jimmy Carter on there and it's a whole nuther story.

goal would be to ... report back in the spring.

In other words, a good way to stall doing anything about the issue, while giving the impression of intending to do something, meanwhile allowing public interest in the issue to fade.

After exploring other options it was decided that the fox is really the most expert individual to perform the guard duties. No one is better qualified due to his intimate understanding of internal hen house rules, pecking orders and regulations as well as the complex social organization of the house residents.

When questioned about possible conflicts of interest issues the fox stated,"My relationship with the house has been controversial in the past, but I think time has shown that my interest in keeping the hen house in good order, far outweighs any short term gain that I might accrue through my position as official guardian".

had an equal number of R's and D's. In the event of a tie, investigations would go forward. What is wrong with re instituting those rules?

easily.