CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, writes:
House has opened wide loopholes in ethics rules.
As the U.S. House of Representatives continues its debate on how to proceed on ethics reform, an article in today's edition of The Hill is instructive. Even though, the Senate is far from doing all the work on policing its members that needs to be done, that body is viewed as more aggressive on ethics issues. Two former House members (Cunningham and Ney) are incarcerated. Two more members (Jefferson and Renzi) are currently under indictment.
CREW also reports:
As expected, Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi has pleaded not guilty to federal charges including insurance fraud, extortion and money laundering.
The three-term Republican appeared in U.S. District Court in Tucson on Tuesday. He was named Feb. 21 with two other defendants in a 35-count indictment.
Another of CREW's recent entries includes:
Former Murkowski Chief of Staff who pleaded guilty on "growing list of cooperating government witnesses". As we [CREW] noted last night, Jim Clark, who served as Chief of Staff to former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski, entered a guilty plea to charges stemming from the on-going public corruption scandal in that state. But, Clark isn't finished. He now has to cooperate with the authorities. And, we still don't know where that will lead -- although the names of two members of Alaska's Congressional Delegation, Senator Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, are under federal investigation: [Continue reading this story on CREW's website by clicking here.]
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