The subject? A “leak” of an investigative probe by the House into improprieties by its members….including some high profile democrats!
Dozens of lawmakers have drawn scrutiny from their ethics monitor this year for everything from financial dealings to travel and campaign donations, according to a leaked account showing an active House panel secretly at work.
Seven of the lawmakers—four not previously known—serve on a defense appropriations subcommittee that divvies up money for Pentagon contractors.
Most of the names and investigative subjects, mentioned in a summary of the ethics committee’s work last July, were known. But the summary—obtained by The Washington Post—shows the widespread scope of preliminary reviews and investigations the panel can have before it at any one time.
If anything, the document rebuts arguments of some watchdog groups that members of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct—the ethics committee—do little to investigate their colleagues.
The names which will guarantee it to be smothered by the media?
The names of defense subcommittee chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., and Democratic members Jim Moran of Virginia and Peter Visclosky of Indiana had previously surfaced in connection with the inquiry.
The document adds the names of Norm Dicks, D-Wash.; Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; ranking subcommittee Republican C.W. Bill Young of Florida and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.
All four have received campaign contributions from PMA’s political action committee and employees. Donation figures compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics show that:
_PMA’s PAC and employees together were the single biggest source of political money to Dicks in each election cycle from 2003 through 2008 when donations are analyzed by the givers’ employers. Dicks received roughly $89,500 from them during that period.
_The lobbying firm’s PAC and staff also were Kaptur’s top single source of donations by employer during the 2008 election cycle. Collectively, they gave her about $28,500 for the last election and $12,500 for the 2006 election, a total of about $41,000. They gave her nothing in 2003-04.
_Tiahrt raised roughly $19,750 from PMA’s PAC and employees from 2003 through 2008.
_Young collected about $9,250 from the 2003-04 election cycle through last year.
Oh. As for being smothered, this story so far has been:
All three network morning shows on Friday skipped a Washington Post report revealing that powerful congressional Democrats such as John Murtha, James Moran and others on a defense panel are the subject of an ethics investigation for a relationship with a lobbying firm. The Democrats, and some Republicans, are under intense scrutiny for steering over $200 million in earmarks to clients of a company called PMA.
However, ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today show and CBS’s Early Show somehow managed to ignore this potentially damaging problem for the Democratic majority. Instead, NBC’s hosts found time to dress up as Star Wars characters. (Ann Curry appeared as Darth Vader.) Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith went drag and impersonated Julia Child for a cooking segment
Bet that, if this story is at all covered, the headline will be “YOUNG AND TIAHRT CAUGHT IN MASSIVE DEFENSE CONTRACTOR FRAUD!”