San Diego Union Tribune: Give it up

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

Give it up

What probers want, House should provide

May 20, 2006

Former Congressman Randy Cunningham sits in prison, deservedly so. Still unresolved is whether any of his colleagues in the House of Representatives were unduly influenced by or illegally involved in this bribery scandal. If you think, however, that the House, particularly its Republican leadership, would want to know who all was involved and, as important, who all was not, you don't think as they do.

They think the U.S. Attorney's Office here in San Diego is requesting too many documents – tens of thousands, two weeks' worth of copying – from the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees. House lawyers, according to one official, want prosecutors to give them a list that's shorter and gives them a “clear notion of where (the investigation) is going.”

In a less cynical political atmosphere – one in which Republicans and Democrats alike weren't beset by probes into breaches of ethics and law – you might say a winnowed list would mean quicker House assistance to the U.S. attorney. Or that resisting on principle a fishing expedition into legislative affairs by the executive branch of government could prevent unfairly tarnishing some representatives just months before November's elections.

Unfortunately, for a public beset with charges of congressmen pimping contractors and contractors pimping for congressmen, balking at the investigators' request raises this question: What is it that House leaders want to hide? And the only credible response: Give investigators what they want, lest the whole House suffer as the latest cover-up central.


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