Investor's Business Daily, May 24th, 2007
Politics: Democrats are wielding power in Congress like a runaway prosecutor. One House committee alone has conducted 20 probes. But Democratic Rep. John Murtha threatens a colleague and nothing is done.
Democrats promised in the last election to purify Washington. No more ethics problems. No more pork spending. With Democrats in the majority, Congress was going to be a shining example of all that is good.
Nearly a half year into their majority and the Democrats' promise has turned into nothing more than a landslide of investigations. Politico.com characterizes it as "a significant change in Washington."
But we'll say what objective reporting can't say: It's a raw exercise of political power.
Democrats could do some worthwhile mopping up if they'd take a look at Murtha. The Pennsylvania lawmaker charged across the House floor last week to bully Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, almost certainly a violation of House rules.
Rogers was targeted because he had the nerve to try to cut from an intelligence bill $23 million in pork barrel spending that Murtha had inserted for a drug intelligence center in his district.
Rogers and his GOP colleagues contend that Murtha submitted a certification letter for the earmark more than five weeks after its deadline and a single day before the House Intelligence Committee marked up its authorization bill.
Murtha, named "May Porker of the Month" by Citizens Against Government Waste, also failed to give a copy of the letter to GOP Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking member of the panel. That's another possible violation of House rules.
Murtha has apologized to Rogers and Rogers is going to have to be satisfied with that. The House declined to reprimand Murtha.
Had a Republican done what Murtha did, though, there's a good chance there would have been an investigation. After 12 years in the minority wilderness, Democrats are probe-happy.
Some of their investigations are legitimate; part of Congress' job is to provide oversight. But beyond oversight is overkill, which sums up well the 36 probes the Democrats have launched in less than five months.
What the next five months will bring is anybody's guess. What they won't bring, though, is any real scrutiny of Democrats, such as Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, target of a federal bribery probe after the FBI said they videotaped him accepting $100,000 from a businessman.
Or California's Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who served on the Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee on military construction, which coincidentally reviewed contracts that were awarded to firms owned by her husband.
Or Senate Majority Harry Reid, beneficiary of a questionable land deal that he collected $1.1 million from.
If this is ethics, it's not any that we understand.
