Ethics Fades from the Scene

ProPublica reports that federal ethics investigations are fading into irrelevance. Members of congress have discovered that they can simply reject all requests for information by ethics officers and face no penalty or repercussions. The stonewall tactic is bipartisan. Once again, a measure to protect democracy and the rule law turns out to be a toothless mirage.

ProPublica writes:

“Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the freshman Democrat from Michigan, faced allegations that she improperly paid herself a salary from her campaign account, including a bulk payment of $15,500 after the election was over. 

Tlaib told reporters the payments were proper. But when the Office of Congressional Ethics, the House’s independent, nonpartisan watchdog, asked to interview her, the congresswoman refused. So did her staffers who had been involved with the payments. 

Tlaib, who resides on the progressive wing of her party, isn’t alone in this response when OCE came calling. Other lawmakers who stonewalled include a Virginia Republican who allegedly sent his House staff on personal errands, including picking up milk and caring for his dog, and a Freedom Caucus lawmaker from North Carolina who continued to pay his chief of staff even after barring him after accusations of sexual harassment.  

Today, it’s common for lawmakers from both parties to refuse not just some requests for interviews and documents from OCE, but all of them. In the last four years, subjects in 11 of 18 distinct cases refused any cooperation whatsoever. In the six years before that, there were just three such cases out of 43.”

Things like this are what make a third party look appealing and, if one likes honest governance, democracy and the rule of law, necessary. The existing two parties are AWOL and not coming back. They had decades to install defenses of honest governance, democracy and the rule of law, but did absolutely nothing. That’s incompetence.