Drain the Swamp?

[CommuterBob]

LOL

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/u...cs-office.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

House Republicans, overriding their top leaders, voted on Monday to significantly curtail the power of an independent ethics office set up in 2008 in the aftermath of corruption scandals that sent three members of Congress to jail.

The move to effectively kill the Office of Congressional Ethics was not made public until late Monday, when Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that the House Republican Conference had approved the change. There was no advance notice or debate on the measure.

In place of the office, Republicans would create a new Office of Congressional Complaint Review that would report to the House Ethics Committee, which has been accused of ignoring credible allegations of wrongdoing by lawmakers.

the House Ethics Committee, even if it dismisses the potential ethics violation as unfounded, is required to release the Office of Congressional Ethics report detailing the alleged wrongdoing, creating a deterrent to such questionable behavior by lawmakers.

Under the new arrangement, the Office of Congressional Complaint Review could not take anonymous complaints, and all of its investigations would be overseen by the House Ethics Committee itself, which is made up of lawmakers who answer to their own party.

Bryson Morgan, who worked as an investigative lawyer at the Office of Congressional Ethics from 2013 until 2015, said that under his interpretation of the new rules, members of the House committee could move to stop an inquiry even before it was completed.

“This is huge,” said Mr. Morgan, who now defends lawmakers targeted in ethics investigations. “It effectively allows the committee to shut down any independent investigation into member misconduct. Historically, the ethics committee has failed to investigate member misconduct.”

Nothing to see here, folks. We're draining the swamp so we don't need any ethics oversight. It's all good. *

 

[Bob the Citronaut]

Trump is in Congress now?

 

[UCFKnight85]

I've seen a lot of faux outrage over this so let's just recap some things:

1.) This is a caucus "feeler vote" to see where people might stand if this actually went to a vote. It means nothing as of today.
2.) You may recall that bills require 219 votes to pass in the House. This barely passed out of the GOP caucus vote and would be 100 shy of passing.
3.) As far as I can tell, the "independent" panel has been nothing more than a partisan shrill (either way).

 

[CommuterBob]

I've seen a lot of faux outrage over this so let's just recap some things:

1.) This is a caucus "feeler vote" to see where people might stand if this actually went to a vote. It means nothing as of today.
2.) You may recall that bills require 219 votes to pass in the House. This barely passed out of the GOP caucus vote and would be 100 shy of passing.
3.) As far as I can tell, the "independent" panel has been nothing more than a partisan shrill (either way).

1) It's more than just a feeler vote. It's a proposed rule change, with text and everything, ready to go to the floor today as part of the new rules package (among many others).
2) Since it's part of the package, it probably passes.
3) How can something be partisan either way?

 

[CommuterBob]

The Donald disagrees with the move:

 

[btbones]

The Donald disagrees with the move:

View embedded media

View embedded media

I agree with the Don on priorities. I firmly believe he wants to see Congress do their jobs the way we want them too . Just don't know if he can actually make it happen

 

[CommuterBob]

And the GOP reverses course and removes the provision. OCE is to remain intact.

 

[btbones]

#trumptrain

 

[UCFKnight85]

And the GOP reverses course and removes the provision. OCE is to remain intact.

View embedded media

I love how the media paints this as "the GOP" pushing this, when in fact it was a heavily split vote to begin with, that didn't have support of Ryan or McCarthy.

 

[CommuterBob]

I love how the media paints this as "the GOP" pushing this, when in fact it was a heavily split vote to begin with, that didn't have support of Ryan or McCarthy.

well, it was proposed and written by GOP members and passed the GOP caucus and without any Democrat support. Just like Obamacare was a Dem initiative that even some Dems voted against.

 

[Boston.Knight]

The Republicans also aren't going to give 10 Trillion in stimulus and massive deficit spending blowing away even the libs and Bernie. Especially when were at full employment.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-...-water-trumps-massive-stimulus-block-tax-cuts

 

[sk8knight]

LOL

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/u...cs-office.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0








Nothing to see here, folks. We're draining the swamp so we don't need any ethics oversight. It's all good. *

There's already a house ethics committee that has been in place for a long time and worked just fine until The democrats decided it wasn't good enough in 2008. This board allowed for investigations to go on with little to no due process and duplicated an already in place and functioning apparatus. You can't complain about excessive and duplicative government and then defend this committee. This was the right move at the absolute wrong time. Way to be a sheep and buy into the media narrative.

 

[CommuterBob]

There's already a house ethics committee that has been in place for a long time and worked just fine until The democrats decided it wasn't good enough in 2008. This board allowed for investigations to go on with little to no due process and duplicated an already in place and functioning apparatus. You can't complain about excessive and duplicative government and then defend this committee. This was the right move at the absolute wrong time. Way to be a sheep and buy into the media narrative.

It didn't work just fine, though, and it was rare that the House members would admonish their own. And it was Dem congressmen (Waters, Abramoff, etc.) who were making headlines for scandals and not getting admonished by that committee. But way to be a sheep and buy the party line that it didn't do anything. Congress has shown that they can't effectively police themselves.

 

[MACHater02]

There's already a house ethics committee that has been in place for a long time and worked just fine until The democrats decided it wasn't good enough in 2008. This board allowed for investigations to go on with little to no due process and duplicated an already in place and functioning apparatus. You can't complain about excessive and duplicative government and then defend this committee. This was the right move at the absolute wrong time. Way to be a sheep and buy into the media narrative.

You're joking right?

 

[Ace of Knights]

And Trump took to twitter again to deride the intelligence agencies upcoming report on Russian hacking. We are living in a banana republic folks.

 

[Bob the Citronaut]

And Trump took to twitter again to deride the intelligence agencies upcoming report on Russian hacking. We are living in a banana republic folks.

Have a link to the released report?

 

[Great2BAKnight2]

Have a link to the released report?

I tried to find the tweet he referenced and all I found is that Trump's "Russian hacking" briefing was delayed. Trump said it was strange and it must be to build more of a case. I didn't see a reference to a report.

 

[Ace of Knights]

Have a link to the released report?

He just said they delayed the briefings so they could build a stronger case. The Intel community responded and said it was always scheduled for Friday.

It's just stupid and petty.