Ethics Committee investigation planned for Jefferson? We could know soon.
Based on reporting from The Politico, it appears the House is setting in motion an ethics committee investigation of Rep. William Jefferson. Could that mean the House Ethics Committee is actually going to do something? We'll see. Apparently, even that moribund committee can't ignore a 16 count indictment:
Democrats are also expecting the House ethics committee to announce that it is beginning an investigation into Jefferson's case, said the leadership aides. Pelosi will first have to select 10 Democrats for an "ethics pool," something Republicans have already done. Then a four-member investigative subcommittee on Jefferson can be created -- one Democrat and one Republican from the ethics committee itself, and then one Democrat and one Republican from the ethics pool. The investigative subcommittee would review the 16-count federal indictment handed down by the Alexandria, Va., grand jury on Monday and then report back whether Jefferson should be expelled.
Update - Here are the House Democrats selected for the "ethics pool," which means one of them is likely to be named to an investigative subcommittee reviewing the Jefferson case. This list was just released on the House floor: "INVESTIGATIVE SUBCOMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS - Pursuant to clause 5(a)(4)(A) of rule, and the order of the House of January 4, 2007, the Chair announced that the Speaker had named the following Members of the House to be available to serve on investigative subcommittees of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for the 110th Congress: Baldwin of Wisconsin; Crowley of New York; Ellison of Minnesota; Honda of California; Inslee of Washington; Lee of California; Meeks of New York; Napolitano of California; Rothman of New Jersey; and Snyder of Arkansas."
Pelosi and Democratic leaders are trying to pre-empt a privileged resolution to be offered by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) calling on the ethics panel to take action against Jefferson. The ethics committee announced last Congress that it was looking into the Jefferson matter, long before his indictment, but no action was never taken, and the probe was not reauthorized in this Congress.
Betcha
I think so too.
Note that while Scooter Libby, black hat Jack Abramoff, Ney, and Doolittle were tried with comparative lightning speed the Jefferson affair has already been spun out a good while.
And we can expect DOJ to play along in spite of their protestations - in this case DOJ will spin out the investigation, give the case to newbies, change it between departments, and use all of the tricks they learned from Hoover and his boyfriend Clyde to drag out this case. And they know how to do it - just look at the delay in the civil rights murders.
Ther's a bit of a risk here though - the longer things are spun out the more likely ordinary folks are likely to believe that all of the government is a bunch of rotten crooks.
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Betcha anything that the
Betcha anything that the Republicans make this a long and painful episode for them Dems.
The leadership in the House has allowed the situation to get to the point where the Republicans can now reap the max benefit at the Dems' expense. Republican corruption is old hat, but this Jefferson affair is the most infamous and foul yet seen.The indictment is out, the details are known, and the Dems will take a hit they could have avoided by ditching Jefferson before now. Inexperienced leadership has given the Republicans bullets to fire back.