BOOM: Alan Grayson Files Ethics Complaint Against McCarthy, Gowdy over Benghazi Committee

[Cali_Democrat]

by Ken Meyer | 6:10 pm, October 7th, 201

As the House Select Committee on Benghazi continues to deal with the fallout from Kevin McCarthy‘s controversial comments last week, Alan Grayson has reportedly filed an ethics complaint against him and Trey Gowdy for using official funds to damage Hillary Clinton.

The House Rules Committee blocked an effort by Democrats yesterday to dissolve the committee, but Grayson wrote a letter saying that McCarthy’s comments prove that the committee is less interested in the truth and more in hurting Clinton’s presidential chances.

“This represents the new McCarthyism, the misuse of official funds for political purposes to vilify a political opponent,” Grayson said to Roll Call. “This is not a step I take lightly, but it’s important that OCE investigate such a blatant misuse of public funds in a blatantly partisan manner.”

Grayson also accused Gowdy of drawing out the investigation and subpoenaing State Department officials in order to spread disinformation and maximize the negative impact on Clinton.

Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/alan-grayson-files-ethics-complaint-against-mccarthy-gowdy-over-benghazi-committee/

[Human101948]

1. Can this go anywhere with Republicans in charge?

Isn't the ethics committee dominated by the Republicans?


The answer:

The committee has an equal number of members from each party, unlike the rest of the committees, which are constituted with the majority of members and the committee chair coming from the party that controls the House. This even split has limited its power by giving either political party an effective veto over the actions of the committee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Committee_on_Ethics

[4139]

7. Trey Gowdy is a member...

https://ethics.house.gov/about/committee-members

[stevenleser]

9. So he would have to recuse himself on this right? Which would give Democrats

A slight majority in the voting.

[ronnykmarshall]

2. He was on Stephanie Miller today ...

GAWD I love this man!

[djean111]

3. Can't wait to vote for Grayson. n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

5. He's your congressman? nt

[djean111]

6. Hopefully he will be running against Patrick Murphy (DINO-FL) for Rubio's

Senate seat. Murphy was a Republican until 2012, when he switched to Democrat so he could run against another Republican. He votes with the GOP a lot, and voted yes on establishing the Benghazi committee.
He is a member of that New Democrat Coalition, which is advised by the Third Way.

So I am pretty stoked about Grayson challenging Murphy. DWS prefers Murphy.
Oh, answer to your question - no, Grayson is a Representative from another district, but will be running for Senator.

[dsc]

4. Have to say I wish it were someone other than him who did this

His ethics are nothing to crow about. That said, one hopes the committee will do something.

[tularetom]

8. I know we all expect McCarthy, Gowdy and probably Issa to go to jail over this

But it just isn't going to happen.

McCarthy, as ignorant as he might be, never claimed there was a causal relationship between the formation of the bogus Benghazi committee and Clinton's declining poll numbers. Very simply it's a well known logical fallacy, "post hoc ergo propter hoc" (after this therefore because of this) - what he said was "We held hearings on Benghazi and after that, Clinton's numbers declined".

He never said "We held hearings for the purpose of lowering Clinton's numbers and it worked" which probably would have established grounds for an ethics complaint.

I'm disappointed that even somebody as smart as Thom Hartmann has jumped on the bandwagon over this. But regardless, it isn't going anywhere.