bobney · @bobney
3rd Jan 2017 from TwitLonger
House Republican Ethics Change
I have obviously had many phone calls and requests to do interviews with the media over the article I will attach about the House Republicans . My name and two others along with Jack Abramoff were mentioned in media conversations.
Right out of the barrel let me say that the House Republicans should not have done this and also the way they did it without announcing it is not a public policy to be proud of.
It however is not as simple as it looks.. The Outside Ethics Office needed revisions... It leaked like a dam that had been blown up, it publishes information eventually that is damning even after Members were cleared therefore costing many of them irrevocable harm for something that they were not guilty of, and it accepted anonymous complaints... I cannot even begin to go there on that..it is not whistle blowing, it was revenge and politics in many cases without assigning a name..
HOWEVER this was a definite. throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I defended Hillary Clinton extensively on radio when the Director of the FBI cleared her then proceeded to regurgitate everything he thought she did wrong.. This is the same scenario.. If Members are cleared then like any citizen the case should be done. If a citizen in the real world is accused of something and the prosecutor of any county in the nation decides to not pursue that person, do they publish everything under the sun about speculation on that person in the newspaper- no and rightfully so. I do not think it should have been done to Hillary as she was cleared and I do not think it should be done to a Member if cleared. The way the committee functioned went contrary .
But in general the independent committee serves a valuable purpose and could have been tweaked but this was not a tweak.it was a box of dynamite.. bad move....bad mechanics...sends the wrong message..
Now as far as reality and truth... also... other changes were not made after our high profile cases...everything that Jack and I and others did was codified into law after we left...Nancy Pelosi drained the swamp but forgot to tackle big issues of ethics when she was Speaker. Neither have the Republicans since. Big money still flows all the way around.. that was not tackled.. Trips and extravagant dinners still flow, (3.7 million in private trips were allowed in 2014 alone) that was not tackled. Under following Congressional sessions .. they never cleaned up many things...but the independent committee was a good step...
It could have been made more effective and it was unfair in many aspects....but the House Republicans tackled it.... in the wrong way.