House ethics panel almost ready to roll

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1129973416144530.xml&coll=2

Saturday, October 22, 2005

-- The House Ethics Committee is close to resolving a staffing impasse that has kept it from investigating ethics questions about members of Congress, including Ohio's Bob Ney.

West Virginia Rep. Alan Mollohan, top Democrat on the committee that ensures representatives abide by House rules, says the committee is on the verge of hiring a nonpartisan staff director and is accepting résumés for four investigative-attorney jobs that must be filled before it can operate. Mollohan said he expects the committee will begin functioning "in a reasonable period of time."

Much of the work of the committee has been stalled since January, when Republicans changed its makeup and pushed through changes on a party-line vote that made it harder to initiate investigations. Republicans repealed the controversial changes, but a dispute erupted when they tried to appoint a GOP staff director instead of a nonpartisan.

The bickering kept the committee from resolving a series of high-profile issues, including questions about dealings between Ney, a Licking County Republican, and indicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff...

[babylonsister]

1. I expect they will have lots of work to do and look forward

to hearing all about it.

[MichiganVote]

2. Most worthless committee Congress has

[greekspeak]

3. Worthless or underutilized?

I would assume this committee could be a force for good, if used properly. However, the current leaders are abusing it and every other mechanism at their disposal for every manner of evil and immorality.

[MichiganVote]

4. Underutilized IS worthless

[struggle4progress]

5. kick