If Congress Doesn't Start Cleaning House-Fed Prosecutors Say They Will

[kpete]

Web Exclusive| Nation
Would Justice Clean the House?
If Congress doesn't start policing itself more seriously, federal prosecutors say they might step in
By BRIAN BENNETT AND TIMOTHY J. BURGER/WASHINGTON

Posted Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006
The Justice Department has a message for Congress: clean up your house or else we may have to do it for you. A senior federal law enforcement official told TIME that the paralyzed and often lax House ethics committee has created a vacuum that prosecutors won't hesitate to fill. The House’s internal mechanism for keeping corruption in check is “broken,” says the official.

By contrast, current criminal probes of lawmakers are expanding rapidly. Like the Abramoff probe, the investigation into former Republican Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham from San Diego is also widening. Last week, defense contractor Mitchell Wade OF MZM, INC. pleaded guilty to supplying more than $1 million of the $2.4 million in bribes Cunningham previously admitted taking in a scheme that touches Defense Department officials and two other members of Congress. A Defense Department spokesman tells TIME that "there is an ongoing review by appropriate organizations within the Department" as to whether the Cunningham- and MZM-linked intelligence contracts would have compromised any Pentagon intelligence programs.

But in a body that likes to think it can police itself, some wonder if prosecutors are overreaching. The Justice Department has “every right to investigate when a law is being broken,” says a senior House GOP aide, “However, there is a feeling that they may be crossing boundaries into where the ethics committee should be performing. And it's just another reason why the ethics committee needs to get up and running.”

Staff of the ethics committee—which is only beginning to get up and running after a partisan deadlock that's lasted for 13 months—did not return phone calls Friday for comment. Jan Baran, an attorney who has often represented elected officials caught in ethics cases, said Justice may be “saber rattling” since the ethics panels cover congressional rules and not criminal offenses, which are Justice's province alone. But if Justice is really just trying to warn Congress to crack down on sleazy conduct, “I think they're correct.… Not only the Department of Justice, but I think the public is telling Congress: if you're going to have some rules make sure people obey them.”

more at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1167705,00.html

[bahrbearian]

1. I wish they would,, what are we building those detention camps for?

[Frustratedlady]

3. At the rate the GOP is going under....

and, at the reported 5,000 occupancy rate per camp, one camp will be needed for them. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

[rodeodance]

2. it has been a long haul since Duke did himself in--another one is needed

to be actually indicted ===Like DeLay?