The Findings Of The House Ethics Committee On Gaetz

 The House ethics Committee has released its investigative report on the misdeeds of Matt Gaetz. If you want to read the entire report (it's about 37 pages), you can go here. 

Here are the five findings of the committee:

The Committee Found Representative Gaetz Violated State Laws Related to Sexual Misconduct

The Committee Found Representative Gaetz Used Illegal Drugs

The Committee Found that Representative Gaetz Violated the House Gift Rule

TheCommitteeFoundRepresentativeGaetzDispensedSpecialPrivilegesandFavors to Individuals with Whom He Had a Personal Relationship

The Committee Found Representative Gaetz Sought to Obstruct Its Investigation of His Conduct

Investigation Of Rep. Waters To Continue

Back in 2010, it was learned that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) helped to secure government funds to bail out a bank where her husband held a significant amount of stock. The move saved her husband's investment (an investment that it's hard to believe she didn't know he had). The whole thing stinks. If it was not illegal (and it seems that it wasn't), then it is certainly unethical. With her husband's interest in the bank, she should not have had anything to do with funneling government funds into that bank.

The House Ethics Committee started an investigation into whether Rep. Waters had violated House ethics rules. Instead of offering a defense for her actions (if she had a defense), her attorney attacked the committee investigating her -- claiming that the committee had violated her rights in at least 12 instances.

The committee took the charges seriously. They replaced their lead attorney, and for the last year or so he has investigated the committee's actions. He found no wrongdoing. Now the committee has informed Rep. Waters that her rights were not violated and the investigation of the charges against her will be continued.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia) and Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Kentucky), the chairman and ranking member of the committee, wrote Rep. Waters, telling her, "The outside counsel has concluded, and the Committee has unanimously found that you have been afforded notice and the opportunity to be heard. As such, there has been no violation of the due process rights to which you are entitled. Even when the allegations are considered in their totality, there is still no violation of the process which you are due, and the Committee is entitled to continue its consideration of your matter."

I don't know whether this will be enough to cost Rep. Waters her job as a representative, but it will probably hurt her rising any further in Congress. And it will definitely hurt the Democratic Party, which doesn't need this kind of black eye with an election coming up -- an election that many say will be close. President Obama has had a very corruption-free administration, and while Rep. Waters is not in the administration, her ethical failures will be used by the opposition party to smear the president and his party.

When this first became known in 2010, I called for Rep. Waters to resign. I still think she should resign. She has had a long career in the House, but it is time for her to go. If Rep. Waters was a Republican, progressives and Democrats all over the country would be demanding her resignation. We can do no less just because she is a Democrat. Unethical and corrupt actions should not be tolerated for those of either political party.

I have personally admired Rep. Waters and her long career fighting for progressive causes. But she has done wrong. Now it is time for her to retire from public service.

GOP Senator Admonished By Ethics Comm.

The Senate Ethics Committee has publicly admonished ultra-right-wing Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma). It seems that Coburn didn't think the senate rules applied to him. Three years ago, the Senate banned the aide of former-Senator Ensign (Doug Hampton) from doing any lobbying. In spite of the ban, Ensign held a meeting and discussed business with Hampton.

The Oklahoman's website said Coburn's action was not a violation of federal law or of senate rules. But while it probably isn't a violation of law, I have to think it was a violation of senate rules. After all, if it's not a violation of senate rules to meet with a banned lobbyist and discuss business, then what's the point of banning lobbyists in the first place.

The Ethics Committee considered it a violation of something, saying the meeting was "improper conduct" and didn't meet the "higher standards expected of a U.S. senator". The public admonishment was the least serious penalty the committee could have leveled against Coburn.

Personally, I think Coburn got off light. He knew the Senate had banned Hampton from doing any lobbying, and showed a disregard for the Senate action by openly violating the ban. He knew better and just didn't care.

Rep. Waters Charged With Ethics Violations

It's not bad enough that Charles Rangel (D-New York) has played fast and loose with House ethics and used his government position to enrich himself, but now there's another Democrat facing ethics charges in the U.S. House -- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California).

A House Ethics Committee investigative panel has charged Rep. Waters, who is on the House Financial Services Committee, with pressuring Treasury Department officials to meet with executives from OneUnited Bank (the largest minority-owned bank in the country) during the height of the financial crises. As a result of that meeting the bank received about $12 million in bailout funds.

Now that might not seem so bad except for one thing -- Rep. Water's husband was a board member and stockholder of the bank at that time. Rep. Waters is denying that she did anything wrong and says she did not personally and financially gain from her actions. That defense rings a bit hollow since her husband obviously did gain from her actions (and any gain for her husband would have to be considered a gain for her).

Making matters even worse is the fact that she knew the action would be ethically questionable before she did it. She went to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), chairman of the Financial Services Committee, before taking any action on the matter and discussed it with him. Rep. Frank told her it involved a "conflict of interest" and advised her to "stay out of it".

Frankly I'm shocked that she went ahead and violated House ethics even after being warned. Her extremely poor decision can do nothing but tarnish, what up to now, had been a distinguished career as a legislator. What the hell was she thinking? There is little doubt that she would have blasted a Republican for doing the same thing.

Distinguished careers or not, both Waters and Rangel are guilty of violating House ethics rules (more than once for Rangel) and should be severely punished. When the Democrats regained power in the 2008 election they promised to clean up corruption on Capitol Hill, and they now cannot look the other way because these two representatives are Democrats.

Both Waters and Rangel are demanding a trial before the House Ethics Committee. That is sad because all they are doing is hurting their own party right before the elections. They should just resign and retire (and both are past a normal retirement age). But they won't, so they must be dealt with harshly -- by Democrats as well as Republicans. Anything less is not acceptable and will just further tarnish the reputation of all House members.

"Ceverha Bill" Passes Both House And Senate

The following is a press release from the office of District 90 Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth:

Press Release

House Passes Ceverha Cash Gift Law

(Austin, TX) -- Today, the Texas House passed SB 129 which definitively requirespublic officials to disclose the value of monetary gifts they receive that exceed $250 invalue. The Governor is expected to sign the bill now that it has passed both chambers.

This issue first came to light after Bob Perry gave ERS board member and Tom
Craddick-confidante Bill Ceverha two checks worth $50,000 each. Ceverha tried to describe $100,000 in cash gifts merely as"checks," without disclosing the amount.

Ceverha is the former treasurer for Tom DeLay's TRMPAC.

“I have spent the past two years working for greater transparency and disclosure in state ethics laws,” said State Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth).

“Hopefully, with the passage of this bill, the Texas Ethics Commission will no longerbe able to turn a blind eye when Republican cronies attempt to avoid disclosure,” saidBurnam. “I’m very disappointed that the Ethics Commission didn’t do the right thingin the first place.”

“I’ve introduced legislation, HB 2451, to require the Ethics Commission to interpretand implement statutes so that this kind of situation doesn’t happen again.

“The Legislature should not have to do the Ethics Commission’s job by making lawswhen rules will suffice,” Burnam continued. “The Legislature only meets for five months every two years. We rely on state agencies to make rules to uphold the intent of the law. The Commission failed us in the Ceverha gift case.

“Hopefully in the future they will require disclosure of the amount of a $100,000 gift.’”

Rep. Burnam’s HB 2451 passed the House overwhelmingly and is currently in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

Rep. Burnam, and the other Representatives and Senators who voted for this bill deserve our thanks for passing Senate Bill 129. It was badly needed since the Ethics Committee had refused to do its job. Now they need to finish the job, and pass HB 2451.

If they do, maybe now we will have accountability for state officials. Burnam has been fighting for this kind of accountability for months, and it is nice to see his efforts pay off.

As for the Ethics Committee, it is just sad that they must be forced by the legislature to do their job. If they had any ethics, they would resign, and allow their positions to be filled by Texans who are not too corrupt or too afraid to do the job.

After all the ridiculous bills that have been debated this year (and some even passed), it is good to see our legislature actually do something for the good of the citizens of Texas.