The HIll reported today that Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) who is the ranking member on the House Ethics Committee "took the unusual step Thursday of publicly complaining that the panel has been dragging its feet in its investigation into Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) ethics controversy."  In response, CREW's Melanie Sloan issued this statement:

The outrage expressed by Rep. Hastings (R-WA) on the delay of the investigation into Rep. Charlie Rangel’s activities is all but laughable from a member whose own unethical dealings, and those of a number of his colleagues, have never been probed.

If Rep. Hastings wants action, there is a long list congressmen whose activities certainly deserve scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee. For starters, there are 11 members currently under state and federal investigation: Reps. Ken Calvert (R-CA), John Doolittle (R-CA), Tom Feeney (R-FL), Vito Fossella (R-NY), William Jefferson (D-LA), Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Gary Miller (R-CA), Tim Murphy (R-PA), Rick Renzi (R-AZ), and Don Young (R-AK).

Meanwhile, neither Rep. Hastings nor Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) have been investigated for their roles in the U.S. attorneys firing scandal. The conflict-of-interest issue created by Rep. Hastings’ position on the committee that should have been charged with investigating his activities was completely ignored as well.

Still, more questions remain: Why would Rep. Hastings call for an outside special counsel on this particular case, while he has declined to investigate other, far more egregious cases? What then, is the actual purpose of the newly created Office of Congressional Ethics? Why has this new independent ethics office done the sum total of nothing since it opened for business in July? Why did the House even bother creating it?

On the bright side, our hope is now that Rep. Hastings has decided to articulate his indignation on the inaction of his committee, he will get to work addressing all of his colleagues’ ethics violations, who thus far have evaded his strong commitment to accountability of House ethics standards.

Seattle Times columnist Kate Riley asks a question today that CREW often asks: 

Where is the House of Representatives ethics probe of the suspiciously over-the-line attempts by House members to influence U.S. attorneys in politically charged cases?

She also has the right answer:

Don't hold your breath. 

Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) should be facing investigations by the House Ethics Committee, but they're not.  And Ms. Riley knows why: 

So here we are, two months after the prosecutors, under subpoena, revealed to Congress these inappropriate phone calls. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington formally asked both the Senate and House ethics committees to probe all three incidents. The Senate acted almost immediately on CREW's complaint.

Different rules, written and unwritten, apply in the House. The ethics committee — formally the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct — does not act on outside complaints like CREW's. It acts on member complaints or outside complaints forwarded by members.

Interestingly, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., called for a House ethics investigation soon after the revelation. Nice sound bite, but he apparently has not filed a complaint of his own. Now, that would be real leadership.

The House ethics committee also can initiate its own investigation. That's not likely either, considering Hastings continues as ranking Republican on the committee split evenly with five Democrats and five Republicans.

Even though the Democrats have taken over control of the House, the ethics committee, notoriously indolent under Republican control, including Hastings' chairmanship, appears hopelessly stuck.

CREW's Executive Director Melanie Sloan sent a letter to the Chairwoman, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and Ranking Minority Member, Doc Hastings, of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (the Ethics Committee) asking them to clarify the rules governing the contact between members of Congress and U.S. Attorneys. The letter and our news release can be found here.

The recent controversy surrounding the firing of U.S. Attorneys has exposed several incidents of contact between members of Congress contacting prosecutors.  One member of Congress, Darrell Issa (R-CA), actually put his contact in writing. Rep. Issa sent a letter to San Diego's U.S. attorney, Carol Lam requesting information regarding the arrest and subsequent release of a man described by Rep. Issa as “an alien smuggler with a long criminal record.” He was very open about that direct contact -- as if there was really nothing wrong with interfering with an on-going case.  The Congressman has publicly released and discussed the letter.

Others members have been more secretive about contacting sitting U.S. Attorneys -- including Rep. Heather Wilson and Rep. Doc Hastings (yes, that same Ranking Minority Member of the Ethics Committee).  According to CREW's analysis, these members violated House Rules and CREW has asked the Ethics Committee to investigate Rep. Wilson and Rep. Hastings and Ed Cassidy, Hasting's former Chief of Staff

There is no question that House members need the policy clarified as soon as possible.  CREW wants the Ethics Committee to put the policy in writing:

Given the recent public attention to the issue of political pressure on U.S. Attorneys and the apparent confusion of members of Congress as to how best interact with U.S. Attorneys, the [Ethics] Committee should prepare and distribute an advisory memoranda clarifying the rules governing such contacts.

Not one, not two, but three editorials in the Washington papers castigating Doc Hastings for interfering with the U.S. Attorney

Joel Connelly in the Seattle Post Intelligencer: 

The House Ethics Committee needs to investigate whether Reps. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., and Doc Hastings, R-Wash., crossed legal or ethical lines in pressuring federal prosecutors.

A complicating factor: Hastings is a former chairman of the ethics committee and its ranking Republican.

From the editorial page at the Yakima Herald:

Some are calling for a House ethics committee probe of Hastings and Cassidy in light of the phone call. Both insist they did nothing improper and McKay confirmed the call didn't go anywhere.

But why not clear the air and set the record straight? A probe would provide answers to lingering questions, such as was is it improper for the call to be made in the first place? Let the committee check it out, just as it routinely looks into other ethical issues involving members of Congress.

Hastings is very familiar with the workings of the ethics panel, though he's now senior Republican and no longer chairman under Democratic control. One would think he'd welcome an investigation to spike rumors and speculation. Absent that kind of probe, the rumor mill will likely continue to operate on overtime.

The mass firings are deeply disturbing. The reputations of eight people have been called into question and careers possibly ruined. Majority party Democrats owe it to the public that just put them in the driver's seat in Congress to take this whole episode apart, piece by piece.

Then come up with answers to disturbing questions and an action plan to deal with this distasteful chapter in Capitol Hill politics.

An editorial in the Spokane Review:

These are serious allegations, but they stand on circumstantial evidence. Congress is doing the right thing in trying to learn more. Even Gonzales has changed his tone and is dropping resistance to congressional questioning of Justice Department officials. The administration has also said it will not challenge proposed legislation that will send future midterm nominees to the Senate for confirmation.

There's no downside to probing this matter. If administration supporters are right, the dark cloud will lift. If critics are right, then a corrupt system can be swept away.

 

Last week, CREW asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) and his former Chief of Staff for pressuring a sitting U.S. Attorney about a pending case, which we believe violates House Rules. CREW's Executive Director Melanie Sloan was interviewed by KUOW-FM in Puget Sound, WA about Hastings. You can listen here.

One of Melane Sloan's best lines:

There's no such thing as an innocent phone call to a U.S. Attorney about a pending criminal matter....

We're still waiting for a sitting House member to file an ethics complaint against Hastings -- and Rep. Heather Wilson -- in this U.S. Attorneys scandal.

Today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave prominent coverage to CREW's request for an investigation of Rep. Doc Hastings and his former Chief of Staff:

A Washington interest group with an aggressive history of policing congressional behavior asked the House Ethics Committee Thursday to investigate whether Rep. Doc Hastings and his former chief of staff improperly contacted a sitting U.S. attorney about the contested 2004 governor's election.

The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked the committee to launch an immediate investigation into a telephone call made by Ed Cassidy to then-U.S. Attorney John McKay about whether McKay planned to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the bitter governor's race.

Under House rules, only a sitting member of Congress can file an ethics complaint against another member.   CREW is aggressive when it comes to policing ethics.  We need a member of Congress willing to police congressional behavior. 

One of the top issues for voters in the 2006 was ethics. The National Republican Campaign Committee blamed ethics and corruption for the loss of a number of House seats. Then, the first official act of the new Congress was to pass tougher ethics rules.

Now, the House is confronting yet another serious ethics scandal. Now, we'll figure out if the tough talk is matched by real action.

CREW has asked for ethics investigations of Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA). Coincidentally, Hastings is the ranking Republican member on the House Ethics Committee.

As TPM Muckraker reminds us, the House doesn't have a great recent track record on ethics:

But there's a funny thing about the ethics committee in the House. Unlike in the Senate, a complaint does not automatically trigger a preliminary investigation. For that to happen, a member of the House has to file a referral. And, because of an ongoing ethics truce between the parties, that is exceedingly rare.

Yep. Rare, indeed. No ethics complaints were filed against the now imprisoned Bob Ney (R-OH) or Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA).

Actions will speak louder than campaign rhetoric.

CREW wants an ethics investigation of Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) and his former Chief of Staff, Ed Cassidy, for their role in contacting the U.S Attorney in Seattle about a pending case. Hastings is the ranking member on the House Ethics Committee. In the last session of Congress, he served as chair of that committee.  His former chief of staff, Ed Cassidy, now works for House Minority Leader John Boehner.  Our news release and the key documents can be found here:

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate whether Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) and his former chief of staff, Ed Cassidy, violated House rules by improperly contacting a sitting U.S. Attorney.

The U.S. Attorney in Seattle, Washington, John McKay, testified before the Senate that, in 2004, during a series of vote recounts in which a Democrat was narrowly elected governor of Washington, Rep. Hasting’s then-Chief of Staff Ed Cassidy called, informing him that “the purpose of the call was to inquire on behalf of Congressman Hastings” about the status of the ongoing investigation to inquire about the status of a federal investigation into voter fraud. Mr. McKay was “concerned and dismayed by the call,” believing the conversation might constitute obstruction of justice.

When asked about the call, Rep. Hastings claimed that Mr. Cassidy’s call to Mr. McKay was “entirely appropriate,” and that the call was “a simple inquiry and nothing more.” Mr. Cassidy claimed that his conversation with Mr. McKay “was a routine effort to determine whether allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 gubernatorial election were, or were not, being investigated by federal authorities.”

Mr. Cassidy’s call to Mr. McKay -- at Rep. Hastings’ behest -- violates chapter 7 of the House ethics manual, which prohibits members from contacting executive or agency officials regarding the merits of matters under their formal consideration. House rules also state that if a member wants to affect the outcome of a matter in litigation, the member can file a brief with the court, make a floor statement, or insert a statement into the Congressional Record. Directly calling officials to influence an on-going enforcement matter is not an option.

Moreover, the rules state that a member may not claim he or she was merely requesting “background information” or a “status report” because the House has recognized that such requests “may in effect be an indirect or subtle effort to influence the substantive outcome of the proceedings.”

The conduct of Rep. Hastings and Mr. Cassidy may also violate the requirement that members conduct themselves in a manner that “reflects creditably on the House.” In a precedent cited by the House ethics committee when it admonished former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), the House has held that members are prohibited from asking an executive branch employee to engage in an activity having an impermissible political purpose.

CREW’s complaint alleges that Mr. Cassidy contacted Mr. McKay to discuss an ongoing investigative matter for the impermissible political purpose of impacting the Washington gubernatorial election.

Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, stated, “It is outrageous that Rep. Hastings who, ironically enough, is the ranking member of the House ethics committee, attempted to use the criminal justice system to interfere with a gubernatorial election. Rep. Hastings should step down from his position on the committee pending an investigation into his conduct.” Sloan continued, “Now that we have learned that three members of Congress violated House and Senate rules by improperly contacting U.S. Attorneys about ongoing investigative matters, the question is how many other U.S. Attorneys have been similarly pressured. The Senate Judiciary Committee would be prudent to contact all sitting U.S. Attorneys and ask them whether they too have received such calls.”

This situation begs the question of whether the House Ethics Committee can police itself. There isn't a great track record.

For the House to proceed with an ethics investigation, a sitting member will have to file a complaint with the ethics committee. We'll see just how seriously this new Congress takes ethics reform.

Today's New York Times editorial, "The Gonzales Eight," examines the controversy surrounding the fired U.S. Attorneys.  There must be an ethics investigation:

Congress must keep demanding answers. It must find out who decided to fire these prosecutors and why, and who may have authorized putting pressure on Mr. Cummins. And it must look into whether Senator Domenici and Representatives Wilson and Hastings violated ethics rules that forbid this sort of interference. We hope the House committee will not be deterred by the fact that Mr. Hastings is its ranking Republican. The Justice Department also needs to open its own investigation. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s claim that these prosecutors were fired for poor performance was always difficult to believe. Now it’s impossible.

Congress doesn't have a great track record of policing itself.  But, the pressure is on. 

Pressure is building for the House and Senate Ethics Committees to investigate the actions of Rep. Wilson, Senator Domenici and Edward Cassidy, who worked on the staff of Rep. Doc Hastings. You will recall that Hastings was the chair of the House Ethics Committee in the last Congress. He still serves on the Committee. CREW asked for investigations of Wilson and Domenici earlier this week. AP reports on the latest developments:

Republicans could face ethics investigations for contacting U.S. attorneys about pending cases, a jarring political development only four months after ethical lapses helped cost the GOP control of Congress.

Two veteran Republican lawmakers and a top GOP leadership aide contacted prosecutors who later were fired. All three denied wrongdoing.

Democratic-run committees in both the House and Senate are investigating the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. Six of those prosecutors told Congress on Tuesday they felt pressured by the interventions.

The Senate ethics committee already is conducting a preliminary inquiry into the call by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to a prosecutor in his state. The action was required once the committee received a complaint against Domenici from a congressional watchdog group.

The House's ethics panel has more discretion on starting an initial inquiry. But Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said there should be one. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., contacted the same prosecutor as Domenici.

Edward Cassidy, a top aide to House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio and a former ethics committee staff member, contacted a prosecutor in Washington state.

The Senate's ethics manual says Senate offices should refrain from intervening in pending court actions "until the matter has reached a resolution in the courts." The House's version has similar warnings.

Cassidy's case presents a potential conflict for the senior Republican on the House ethics committee, Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington state. Cassidy was his top aide in his personal office and on the committee.