In a Season of Scandals, Ethics Panels Are on Sidelines

In inquiries unrelated to Abramoff, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has been subpoenaed in connection with probes by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department into his sale of stock in HCA Inc., the chain founded by his father and brother. In another case, Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) is under investigation by the Justice Department for possible violations connected with a telecommunications deal he was trying to arrange in Nigeria. Both lawmakers have denied wrongdoing.

Despite all this activity, the ethics committees in Congress, which are charged with self-regulation in the House and Senate, have been mum all year.

"I don't think the ethics committees are working very well," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said yesterday on "Meet the Press." "The latest Cunningham scandal was uncovered by the San Diego newspaper, not by" the ethics committee.

The House ethics panel, formally known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, was shut down for the first part of the year as the House worked through a variety of partisan disagreements over what rules would govern the committee's decisions. It then remained inert for a few more months while it considered more than 80 applicants for its top staff job, which was vacant.

It was not until last month that the panel chose William V. O'Reilly, a partner in the Washington office of the Jones Day law firm, as its chief of staff. But in a telephone message, O'Reilly said that he has not yet begun work at the committee and declined to comment further. He is expected to start early next year.

O'Reilly's start date will not be enough on its own to get things moving, however. Mollohan said the ethics committee still must hire three or four investigative counsels before it is fully up and running. In the meantime, the panel has handled only routine matters such as issuing advice and perusing lawmakers' disclosures; no investigations have been undertaken in 2005.

In contrast, the ethics committee has been extremely active in the past. It has upbraided or warned two former House speakers -- Jim Wright (D-Tex.) and Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) -- for alleged ethical lapses. It has also criticized House colleagues for matters such as financial improprieties and sexual misconduct. The Senate's ethics panel, officially called the Select Committee on Ethics, has been completely staffed and organized all year but has been silent. Neither Chairman George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) nor the panel's senior Democrat, Sen. Tim Johnson (S.D.), returned phone calls last week about its activities. The panel's staff also declined to comment.

In the past, however, the committee has made it a practice not to pursue inquiries when other law enforcement agencies were involved in their own investigations. The panel has worried that its questions might interfere with the agencies' efforts.

The watchdog groups see such explanations as hollow. "This is really an important time for Congress to step up and say this is going way too far and something needs to be done about it," said Chellie Pingree, president of Common Cause.

The ethics panels, she said, need to act like police watching a busy street. "If the cop's on the corner, you're going to slow down."