Ethics

Watt, House GOP Leaders, Plan Sneak Attack On Ethics Office

Susan Crabtree | July 21, 2011, 12:23PM

Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC), with the help of Republicans leaders, is launching a sneak attack on the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), the only quasi-independent ethics watchdog policing the behavior of members of Congress.

Watt, a prominent member of the Congressional Black Caucus, may be looking for some retribution against the office for investigating him last year. Along with a bipartisan group of several other members, Watt was part of a wide-ranging OCE probe into the propriety of holding fundraising events with big players in the financial sector within days -- or even on the very day -- of a vote on the Wall Street reform bill. He and the other members were eventually cleared of any wrongdoing but not before the investigation leaked to the press and he and the other members made "under investigation" headlines.

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Topics: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Ethics, Ethics Panel, John Boehner, Mel Watt, Nancy Pelosi, Office of Congressional Ethics

Ethics Panel

Conflicted Out? Bonner To Control $500K For Waters Special Prosecutor

Susan Crabtree | July 20, 2011, 4:47PM

Watchdogs are busy extolling the Ethics Committee decision earlier Wednesday to hire an outside counsel to investigate the case against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), as well as allegations that its own staff and members engaged in a pattern of prosecutorial abuse.

But a review of the special prosecutor's contract, obtained by TPM, raises new conflict-of-interest questions for the beleaguered ethics panel.

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Topics: Ethics, Ethics Panel, House Ethics Committee, Jo Bonner, Linda Sanchez, Maxine Waters