The Final Call

Why Just CBC Members Charged with Ethics Violations?

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During the 2008 presidential campaign, when Congressional ethics and corruption hit the top of the polls Nancy Pelosi, then the newly-installed Speaker of the House, promised to “clean the swamp.” She proceeded to establish a new outside entity, the Office of Congressional Ethics, comprised of former members of Congress with a staff of former government lawyers. The role of OCE is to investigate cases and refer those with “probable cause” to the official House Ethics Committee to be further considered.

The big ethics news, however, was on the Senate side when the Ethics Committee recently admonished Roland Burris in one of the harshest letters on record for misleading investigating committees over his contacts with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. But the Committee has done nothing about Senator Mary Landrieu's mysterious $25,000 donation to the U.S. Treasury to cover the source of an illegal campaign contribution, or Jane Harmon's reputed contacts with Israel to insure them she would be in a position to protect their interests, or the long running saga of the affair of John Ensign (R-Nev.) with a campaign staffer, or Republican minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (D-Ky.) insertion of an earmark for clients of his former Chief of Staff, now a lobbyist, in exchange for campaign contributions. That is also the way politics works.

Nevertheless, it is curious that OCE with over 30 cases recommended for consideration by such watchdog groups as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government (which has a good bi-partisan record) came to focus on Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Laura Richardson (D-Calif.), Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Donald Payne (D-NJ), Donna Christensen (D-V.I.), Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), all with former CBC member Yvonne Burke on the OCE. Obviously the targeted members have been angry about the charges, but CBC Chairwoman Barbara Lee was so upset she met with the OCE to press their case (of probably racial profiling). Then, CBC member Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) believes that setting up the committee itself was a mistake; it does amount to a public double-jeopardy situation for those charged.

Without analyzing all of these cases, I am pointing to how this institution works racially and politically. A good comparison is that many Whites, including senior members of the House Appropriations Committee, John Murtha (D-PA), Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.), Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), and Jim Moran (D-VA), are all on the list, but let's see if, for example, John Murtha goes through this process, since he is a strong ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She stood with him against the Bush policy in Iraq to limit U.S. involvement and supported him for House Majority Leader against Steny Hoyer. My view is they won't lay a glove on him.

They also haven't as yet gone after rising Republican star, Eric Cantor (R-VA) a Newt Gingrich-styled Republican who has been trying to run a conservative movement from his congressional office. OCE issued a complaint saying in part, “the use of taxpayer funds to support partisan political activities is prohibited by House rules.” He should have been first up on the block.

Well, you get it; if you have the money of Senator Jane Harmon or the power of John Murtha, very little will happen to you. My surprise is that they went after Charlie Rangel and Bennie Thompson, both Committee Chairs, because traditionally, Blacks whatever their positions, are not given the power and public standing they deserve through positive media exposure. So, few people even know they are there. Otherwise, Pelosi has so far stood behind Rangel especially because of his central role in passing the House health bill. But she can turn on the CBC members, such as Bill Jefferson whose seat on the House Ways and Means Committee she took even before he was convicted.

I'm not defending Black members of Congress who violate ethics rules, but as long as Whites are exonerated, so should Blacks.

So, as long as the rules of politics and/or race color the outcome, here is hoping CBC members have the same fate as the first case of the OCE against Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO.) that was sent to the House Ethics Committee and thrown out.

(Dr. Ron Walters is Professor Emeritus of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. His latest book is: The Price of Racial Reconciliation and is published by the University of Michigan Press. This column was distributed by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.)