Etheridge Calls Removal of Ethics Chair Sign of 'Rampant Corruption'

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) expressed disgust today at the expected removal of Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO) as chairman of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, the committee that deals with ethics complaints, by House Republicans. Hefley was quoted in the Washington Post this week as saying that his fellow leaders "are probably going to boot me" and leadership aides have been quoted as saying he's being removed and that Speaker Hastert is interviewing replacements. Hefley chaired the committee when it issued rebukes to Majority Leader Tom DeLay last year for his involvement in several scandals, and he was removed from his post because the Republican Leadership does not consider him to be a "team player."

"This is the most arrogant abuse of the ethics process since Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre during Watergate," Etheridge said. "Public office is supposed to be a public trust. This is a clear sign of the rampant corruption at the highest levels of the Republican leadership."

On the first day of the 109th Congress, the Republican leadership pushed through changes to weaken the ethical standards to which Members of Congress are held and make it more difficult for ethics complaints to be investigated. The changes, which were passed as part of the 109th Congress Rules Package, will stifle ethics investigations and weaken ethics enforcement by permitting either party to stonewall an investigation of an ethics complaint. These changes come on the heels of investigations by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, which led the committee to rebuke DeLay three times last year.