A couple months back, Markos found it very curious that there wasn't more news coming out of a troublingly quiet Senate Ethics Committee, given the myriad cases that should be on their plate. He noted, "the Senate fails to promote confidence in its integrity by attempting to bury any and all information into the ethics committee's activities."
The fact is, given a whirlwind of ethically questionable activity by Republican Senators, the Senate Ethics Committee should be one of the busiest committees in the Legislative branch. Even if initial deliberations by the Senate Ethics Committee are confidential, surely the results of Senate Ethics inquiries should be public information. And, by now, the Senate Ethics Committee should have achieved results on a number of fronts. Unfortunately, we've heard virtually nothing of substance from them all year.
So let me take this opportunity to run through the year in investigation-worthy ethics imbroglios among Senate Republicans. Perhaps a lowly staffer on the Senate Ethics Committee might see it and wonder why the Committee hasn't been more productive this year.
(Much more below the fold.)
| Senator of ill repute | Date | Charge | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pete Domenici (R-NM) | March 2007 | Inappropriate involvement in an ongoing investigation | After a series of non-denial denials, Domenici admitted to contacting then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias regarding an ongoing corruption investigation, an investigation that was politically sensitive and could impact 2006 election results. Iglesias has commented on the unprecedented nature of Domenici's involvement. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) promptly filed a formal complaint against Domenici. |
| Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) | July 2007 | Accepting illegal gifts in the form of a sweetheart land deal | In mid-July, it came to light that Lisa Murkowski had, in late 2006, purchased a plot of land in a very desirable location for much less than market value from developer Bob Penney, who, of course, also has close ties to Ted Stevens. The sale price of the land was so far below the market value of the land that the sale appeared to constitute an illegal gift from Penney to Murkowski. Once the public got wind of the sweetheart land deal, Murkowski quickly sold the land back to Penney, hoping to avoid more bad press and, probably, legal questions. Now I have to present a hypothetical situation. Let's say a guy robs a bank. And then the press gets wind of the fact that the guy robbed the bank and says, "Hey, you shouldn't have done that; it looks kind of shady." And the bank robber, not wanting to look bad in the media, of course, returns the money to the bank. The guy is still a bank robber! Giving the money back to the bank doesn't change the fact that he robbed the bank in the first place. My point? Even though Murkowski returned the land (many months after the sale and only after the media spotlighted the sweetheart deal), she still accepted what very much appears to be an illegal gift, and an appropriate investigation should occur, with appropriate punishment. |
| David Vitter (R-LA) | July 2007 | Soliciting prostitutes | In the second most notorious Republican Senate sex scandal to come to light in the summer of 2007, David Vitter held a press conference at which he made vague references to taking responsibility for sins, or something of that nature. His phone number turned up on the client list of the DC Madam, and, whoops, Mr. Family Values turned out to be a frequenter of prostitutes over a period of years. Sensationalism aside, soliciting prostitutes is a crime and Vitter has personally only made vague admissions. Since there is evidentiary basis of illegal behavior, the Senate Ethics Committee ought investigate such behavior of a sitting Senator. |
| Larry Craig (R-ID) | August 2007 | Pled guilty to disorderly conduct in June 2007 | We all know the story quite well. We all hate having to make connecting flights, in part because we have some time to kill at a strange airport. Larry Craig chose to go to the bathroom. What his intent was, we can't be sure. But he pled guilty to lewd conduct, kept the guilty plea a secret as long as he could (until the story broke in August), and has been trying to clear his name ever since. |
| Susan Collins (R-ME) | August-September 2007 | Inappropriate use of Senate resources for political campaign purposes | On a number of occasions, incidents came to light that demonstrated that Susan Collins was repeatedly using taxpayer-funded Senate resources for political campaign purposes. In August, when the Collins camp was trying to gin up a fake scandal over the Maine Democratic Party recording Collins' remarks at public events, we saw that it was Collins' taxpayer-funded Chief of Staff and Senate press office, rather than campaign staff, that were coordinating her political responses to the situation. Also in August, it came to light that Collins' Senate office computers were being used to adjust her Wikipedia entry to appear more politically palatable. None of this is shocking given that Collins was already caught using Senate computers for the purpose of political communication with the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in 2004. In September, the Collins camp was finally called out in the media for their abuses of Senate resources for political purposes. There is unquestionably valid reason for further investigation here regarding Collins' Senate office's practices regarding political activity. |
| Trent Lott (R-MS) | November 2007 | Negotiating outside work without informing Senate Ethics Committee | Upon Trent Lott's rush from the Senate to stay ahead of new lobbying restrictions that will take effect in 2008, Lott suggested the possibility of "some opportunities." If Lott has had any formal conversations about employment outside of the Senate, ethics rules dictate that he must disclose his discussions. Lott has not made any such disclosures, despite making reference to existing opportunities. There certainly seems to have been enough speculation to warrant an investigation into whether Lott has had any discussions about employment outside of the Senate while serving as a sitting Senator. |
| Mitch McConnell (R-KY) | Going on for who-knows-how-long | Questionable earmarks & conspiring with known bribers | First, the earmarks. Do you know the name Gordon Hunter Bates? You should. He was a former staffer of McConnell's who left McConnell's office to become, what?, a lobbyist. Shocker. And Bates started raising money for McConnell in the corporate-lobbyist world. And the companies and projects that Bates lobbied for (and whose executives pour contributions into McConnell's coffers), including the notorious iPods for Afghanis and e-Cavern, started receiving earmarks! How convenient. By the Lexington Herald-Leader's count, "at least eight of Bates' lobbying clients... directly receive assistance from McConnell, either through earmarks or friendly legislation." In addition to contributions to his political coffers, Bates' clients, who are also the beneficiaries of McConnell's earmarks and legislation, have also made sizable contributions to, of all places, the McConnell Center for Political Leadership, which tried to keep its donor list confidential until a court ordered the public release of the names of the corporate donors. If those aren't big enough red flags for you, Mitch has also secured $25 million in earmarks for BAE Systems, a British defense contractor "facing a criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and an audit by the U.S. Defense Department" for, of all things, public corruption and bribery! |
| Ted Stevens (R-AK) | Well, he was first elected in 1968... | You name it! | Stevens is currently under investigation by the FBI, the IRS, and the Department of the Interior. His home was raided by the FBI, his home that was renovated by energy executives found guilty of bribing elected officials. He has a Senate staffer with no discernible official Senate duties keeping his private books. There is instance after instance of questionable earmarks and bills that Stevens has pushed through on behalf of business and personal colleagues. And he was explicitly named by corrupt businessmen in a video sting operation by the FBI. Maybe the Senate Ethics Committee would like to take a peek around. |
Clearly, the Senate Ethics Committee should have its hands full. So why has there been nary a peep from them of any decisions, any findings, any disclosures of any kind? What steps could be taken to make sure that any incident that should be investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee is investigated in a timely fashion? If I were Pete Domenici or the equally ethically-compromised Heather Wilson, I would probably just make a phone call to expedite the investigation, however inappropriate that phone call might be. Since that is not an ethical option, I would take a cue from, of all people, Mitch McConnell. When Mitch wanted to throw Larry Craig under the bus as quickly as possible to get him out of the spotlight, he made a pretty interesting recommendation, a recommendation based on a precedent initiated by none other than the current Chair of the Senate Ethics Committee, Senator Barbara Boxer:
Worried that the disgraced lawmaker intends to remain in the Senate indefinitely, they are threatening to notch up the public humiliation by seeking an open ethics hearing on the restroom scandal that enveloped Craig last month.The Senate hearing would examine the original charges in Craig's case, including the allegation of "interference with privacy," for peeping into the bathroom stall occupied by an undercover police officer. One senior Republican aide imagined "witnesses, documents, all in front of the klieg lights." The committee also could look for "a pattern of conduct" -- which means combing court records in other locales to discover whether Craig had prior arrests that haven't come to light.
The call for a public hearing is not unprecedented. In 1995, the Senate narrowly rejected holding an open forum to examine sexual misconduct allegations against Bob Packwood (R-Ore.). The Democrat who called for the open Packwood hearing? Barbara Boxer (Calif.), the current chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee.
If Senate Republicans are willing to go to such lengths in Larry Craig's case, which appears to be, as far as the case is concerned, an isolated incident of lewd behavior, certainly such lengths are warranted to investigate Susan Collins' repeated abuse of taxpayer-funded Senate resources for political campaign purposes or Ted Stevens' chronic appearances of impropriety.
When one-sixth of the entire Senate Republican caucus is worthy of ethics investigations, what we have is a Republican Culture of Corruption. And it truly is a Culture of Corruption, as multiple Republican Senate candidates already bring sizable ethical baggage (see: Heather Wilson and Bob Schaffer). And, for the record, when the isolated incident of a Democrat having major ethical questions occurs, the progressive netroots call that Democrat out.
If Democrats are going to run on a platform of cleaning up corruption from government, they have to take steps to, well, clean up corruption from government. Your move, Senator Boxer.
For daily news and updates on the U.S. Senate races around the country in 2008, check out Senate 2008 Guru: Following the Races.
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