House Dems Try to Limit Independent Overseer

One of the problems of being in charge of investigating yourself is your in charge of investigating yourself.  It would be like allowing BP to investigate what caused the oil spill.  Nobody in their right mind would believe any report BP released about its own actions leading up to the catastrophe.  Or like the time Sarah Palin launched her own investigation into her Troopergate scandal and proudly cleared herself of any wrongdoing.  Only those that watch Fox News believed any of it.

The reason Democrats promised to setup the Office of Congressional Ethics with the power to investigate possible violations by Members was because of the blatant Culture of Corruption Republicans led with for over a decade.  Democrats inherited in 2007 a Congress that had just seen the largest corruption scandal in history with Republican Duke Cunningham.  That case alone would dwarf anything else this country has witnessed by elected officials but unfortunately there was plenty more.

Consider this... 

At one point in time, not very long ago, this country whether state or federal had three incumbent Republicans in prison, Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham, Vic Kohring.

• One incumbent Republican convicted of bribery but awaiting appeal, Pete Kott. 

• One incumbent member also being arrested for soliciting a police officer for gay sex but pleading to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct, Larry Craig. 

• Four incumbent Republicans were and still are under indictment: Ted Stevens, Jack Cowdery, Tom DeLay, Rick Renzi. 

• Five were/are under investigation for illegal wrongdoing. 

• And the highest ranking White House adviser ever was convicted of two counts of perjury, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of lying to the FBI only to have his prison sentence commuted by his former boss Republican President George Bush. 

That's all within about a 6 year time-frame.  None of that even touches on the multitude of Republican staffers, lobbyists and low ranking officials that were also during this time period convicted, indicted and awaiting trial or still under investigation.  There was a definite need for an independent office to watch over the behavior of elected officials and their cronies.  Democrats were right to follow through with their promise to setup the Office.

Yet, even all that doesn't begin to shed light on the many cases that went unnoticed for these are only the ones law enforcement was able to administer.  One can only conclude an independent group would find many more amongst an elected body notorious for corruption. So why in the world Democrats are now wanting to render the independent office ineffective is unmistakeably obvious.  They too don't want people looking over their shoulders.  It's called power and they want more of it without interruptions.  Democrats would be raising a ruckus if Republicans were trying to dismantle the Office.  The same standard should apply, even more so, when their own members do it.