The House Ethics Committee is working overtime -- and (putting aside an ill-considered leak) is doing the right thing.
Five Dems and two Repubs on a subcommittee which deals with Pentagon appropriations are in trouble. Political affiliations aren't the point, though. The point is that we've seen the White House pare back defense spending last week and now we're seeing the House doing something about the process which pours money into defense and (apparently) accepts tips.The investigations by two separate ethics offices include an examination of the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense, John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), as well as others who helped steer federal funds to clients of the PMA Group. The lawmakers received campaign contributions from the firm and its clients. A document obtained by The Washington Post shows that the subcommittee members under scrutiny also include Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.), James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) , C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.).
The document also indicates that the House ethics committee's staff recently interviewed the staff of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) about his allegation that a PMA lobbyist threatened him in 2007 when he resisted steering federal funds to a PMA client. The lobbyist told a Nunes staffer that if the lawmaker didn't help, the defense contractor would move out of Nunes's district and take dozens of jobs with him. ...WaPo
Thirty members of the House are under scrutiny, according to a House document which was leaked, possibly inadvertently.
