Earlier this week, we reported on the pizza party former Attorney General John Ashcroft was hosting for his former employees at the Department of Justice.   According to US News and World Report, that planned event caused the Justice Department ethics officials to warn Ashcroft's potential guests to "consider the appearance of attending such an event."

Well, US News has the latest update - the party is off:

Former Attorney General turned lobbyist John Ashcroft canceled the pizza party he was scheduled to host yesterday for the political appointees from his days heading the Justice Department.

The cancellation came after usnews.com reported that the department's ethics office had flagged the party as potentially troublesome in terms of appearance.

In an E-mail sent to the invitees, which Ashcroft's senior adviser, Juleanna Glover Weiss, provided to U.S News, Ashcroft said that he did not realize that "our sharing of a pizza and soft drinks might erode the high levels of integrity we worked so diligently to engender" when he was attorney general. Ashcroft added that he did not "believe for a second" that the invitees' integrity "could be compromised for a piece of pizza." But he said that "no fellowship over lunch" was "worth the sacrifice of any public confidence in the justice community." Instead, "Going back to my traditional brown bag lunch," wrote Ashcroft, "will not be too much of a challenge for me."

Never occurred to Ashcroft that this could be an ethical problem.  That says a lot. 

From TPM Muckraker's Daily Muck, we learn that Justice Department officials have been warned about the propriety of attending a pizza luncheon hosted by their former boss John Ashcroft.   The report first appeared in US News and World Report:

A pizza luncheon to be hosted this Wednesday by former Attorney General turned consultant John Ashcroft for some of his old political appointees has raised eyebrows in the Justice Department's ethics office, U.S. News has learned. The ethics office, which provides Justice employees with guidance on a wide range of ethics questions, has not prohibited invitees from attending the lunch.

However, it has "advised invitees to consider the appearance of attending such an event," Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse told U.S. News. But Juleanna Glover Weiss, an adviser and spokesperson for his consulting firm, told U.S. News that "General Ashcroft has abided by the letter and spirit of all post government service ethics restrictions." Wednesday's lunch, Weiss said, "is just a small social gathering."

Executive branch employees must comply with stringent standards of ethical conduct pertaining to accepting gifts or items of monetary value from anyone wanting to do official business with their agency, including their old colleagues and bosses. The ethics office has told political appointees at Justice that if they attend the Ashcroft pizza luncheon, it would "count toward the $20/occasion and $50/year limits."

Executive branch ethics have become a hot issue.  US News may think the standards of ethical conduct are already stringent.  We're not so sure.  Earlier this month, CREW released "Criminals and Scoundrels: The 25 most Corrupt Officials of the Bush Administration."   Just last week, Speaker Pelosi called for stricter executive branch ethics.  The Ashcroft/pizza lunch might give some added impetus.