Still no action on ethics complaint against Vitter. A double standard on ethics in the Senate?
In July, CREW filed an ethics complaint against Senator David VItter (R-LA) asking for an investigation into whether he violated the Senate Rules of Conduct by soliciting for prostitution.
As noted in an article in today's edition of The Hill, question are arising over why the Senate Ethics Committee is proceeding with an investigation of Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) while ignoring the Vitter case:
The ethics committee has not appeared to move against Vitter despite a complaint filed in July by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a left-leaning ethics watchdog group.
Naomi Seligman Steiner, CREW’s spokeswoman, said the ethics panel has shown a double standard.
“It’s outrageous that they don’t seem to be investigating,” she said. “They seemed to jump so quickly with Mr. Craig and [lawmakers] gave Sen. Vitter a standing ovation in the Republican caucus.”
“What is shocking is that [Ethics] moved so quickly and so publicly with Craig, so it clearly is a double standard,” she said. “The problem with the ethics committee not starting an investigation is that we don’t know all the facts.
We’re not really getting to the bottom of it and why Vitter’s being protected.”
Boxer’s spokeswoman declined to comment.
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CREW's role
CREW's occasional complaining about a double standard does not alleviate CREW of responsibility for its role in this homophobic episode. CREW has allowed itself to be used as a tool by the homophobic GOP majority by filing an ethics charge against Craig in the first place. If no Vitter investigation; no Craig investigation. Anything else is homophobic, CREW.