By Mary Ann Akers And Paul Kane
Thursday, February 21, 2008
A man who knows the congressional ethics process like the back of his hand is demanding big-time reform.
As deputy counsel for the Senate ethics committee for six years and chief counsel for six more, Wilson R. Abney gained a perspective only a few insiders have. Abney thinks the process is so desperately in need of repair that he's trying to get a reform proposal before the Democratic National Convention in August, when he hopes the party will adopt a resolution making reform on Capitol Hill part of its national platform.
"After 40 years, the ethics committees have failed to restore the public's trust in the integrity of the federal legislative process and, in fact, have further diminished the public's faith in congressional integrity," Abney writes in a proposed platform resolution.
Abney, who left Washington a decade ago to live in suburban Denver, vehemently opposes a proposal House Democrats expect to bring to the floor in the next couple of weeks. It would create a nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics with the power to initiate investigations into lawmakers' behavior.
That office, however, would have no subpoena power and no ability to punish violators. It could only recommend that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- as the House ethics panel is officially known -- formally take up cases against members. Lawmakers would still be in charge of policing fellow lawmakers.
"That didn't fly with me," Abney told On the Hill, comparing the proposed ethics office to putting a "new air filter on your heater."
Instead, Abney wants to abolish the current ethics panels and create new House and Senate investigative bodies with full subpoena and search-warrant powers, staffed by nonpartisans who would "restore the public's trust," as his resolution puts it.
That resolution was unanimously approved by his caucus precinct in Aurora, Colo., on Feb. 5. Next stop on the Abney Ethics Express is a county caucus March 8. If he is successful there, Abney will take his resolution to the state Democratic convention this spring and, he hopes, on to the national party convention in Denver.
"That's not a far ride," said the suburban Denver resident. "I could 'Pony Express' it from here."
Waxman of the WeekThis week we pay tribute to the man who once cornered the market on zealous oversight and the ability to send chills down even the most powerful of spines with sharply worded letters: Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), whose "Dingell-grams" served as inspiration for our "Waxman of the Week."
Dingell, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, has at least half a dozen separate oversight investigations of the Food and Drug Administration going. One involves clinical trial data on cholesterol drugs.
Quite frankly, the chairman's not happy with the information he's been getting from the pharmaceutical companies Schering-Plough and Merck, as he said in a Feb. 11 letter to the drug companies' CEOs.
"We appreciate your partial responses to our initial queries. Your responses, however, have raised further questions," Dingell wrote along with Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who chairs an investigative subcommittee.
Dingell listed seven topics on which he was seeking more detailed information from the companies. These should be given "prompt attention," he added.
At least he signed the note "Sincerely."
McCain, the New Bush?With so much attention focused on the presidential race, vulnerable Senate Republicans facing reelection in November have largely escaped the spotlight. But Democrats aim to change that by launching an Iraq attack, starring Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), his party's presumptive presidential nominee, as whipping boy.
Although exit polls from the presidential race show the economy as the No. 1 issue on the minds of voters, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Web ad hits Senate Republicans for their positions on the Iraq war and ties them to McCain.
Titled "Swear," the new DSCC ad features McCain, President Bush, and GOP Sens. John E. Sununu (N.H.), Susan Collins (Maine), Norm Coleman (Minn.) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who are considered four of the most endangered Senate Republicans this year. It plays clips of all four senators either expressing their support for staying the course in Iraq or saying that U.S. troops aren't coming home anytime soon.
"I think to basically begin to withdraw before the job is finished is a mistake," the ad quotes McConnell as saying. It uses McCain's memorable "I don't think Americans are concerned if we're there for 100 years, or 1,000 years, or 10,000 years" quote. Collins is on the video saying, "It's important that we hold the line in Iraq and that we stay the course." Coleman says, "We will be in Iraq a long time."
A narrator adds: "For a new beginning, enough of Bush. Enough of status quo Republicans in the Senate. Enough." The narrator doesn't mention McCain by name. But DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller contends that "John McCain may be fine with continuing Bush's failed policies for the next 100 years, and Senate Republicans may agree with him, but most Americans couldn't disagree more."
A Republican leadership aide said the GOP figured it was only a matter of time before DSCC Chairman Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) attacked. "That leopard hasn't changed a single spot."
Debate-CrazyIf you haven't gotten your fill of debates by now, get on over to the Jack Morton Auditorium at George Washington University on Monday night for the first in a series of congressional contests.
Monday night's showdown on the economy will feature Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus; Rep. Adam H. Putnam (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Republican Conference; and six other members of Congress -- three Democrats and three Republicans.
The showdown will be moderated by Ron Brownstein, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, now the political director of Atlantic Media Co. The series of debates is being held in cooperation with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and the GOP Congressional Institute.
House Democratic Caucus spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg says the idea of the debates -- believe it or not -- is to neutralize the exceedingly partisan atmosphere on Capitol Hill.
"The hope is that these debates will enable Republicans and Democrats to discuss our differences without being disagreeable, and our policy differences without being partisan," she said. "The aim is for this to be about ideas, not insults."
Rahm Emanuel, not insulting? What, is hell freezing over?
Noted and Quoted"We've been waiting, hoping for the moment of Castro's death. . . . All fear, all power lies with one man: Fidel Castro. While he is alive, while that dictatorship is still alive, that's going to be the case."
-- Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) on why there's no reason to celebrate news that the world's longest-serving communist ruler has resigned.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.