House GOP desperate to shore up culture of corruption

As the article title says, “Rep. Jason Chaffetz was among the Republicans who wanted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics.”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Republican from Utah and chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, was reportedly among the congressmen who voted in favor of gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics — along with another member of the Utah congressional delegation who has been involved in an ethics scandal.

Both Chaffetz and Rep. Mia Love voted in favor of the Republican plan to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, according to a report by Utah Policy. While both Chaffetz and Love confirmed that they had voted for the so-called Goodlatte amendment, only Love provided an emailed statement explaining her reasoning.

“I believe members of the House should continue to be held to the highest ethical standards and the American people should have the right to submit complaints and have them taken seriously,” Love wrote. “The current process has been abused and has affected both Republicans and Democrats. The Office of Congressional Ethics is in need of reform in order to improve due process, to prevent frivolous, politically motivated complaints and increase transparency. The American people should always be ahead of negative campaign tactics.”

Love has had her own ethics issues in the past. In September 2015 it came out that Rep. Love billed taxpayers $1,160 for transportation costs to Washington when she was merely attending social events like the White House Correspondents’ Assocation (WHCA) dinner. House rules prohibit members from using taxpayer funds “to pay for any expenses related to activities or events that are primarily social in nature.”

The other members of Utah’s congressional delegation, Rob Bishop and Mia Love, also voted in favor of gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics.

According to Politico:

The vote to declaw the OCE was orchestrated by several members who felt they had been wrongfully accused of unethical behavior by the OCE, according to several sources in the room. The sources said several members currently or formerly under the OCE’s microscope stood up to support the pitch, which was eventually adopted by a vote of 119 to 74.

And, as the title of yet another article says, “Several House Republicans who voted for the Goodlatte amendment may have had vendettas against the Office of Congressional Ethics.”

The reps. noted in Politico’s report: Blake Farenthold (Texas), once accused by a former staffer of sexual assault; Peter Roskam (Illinois), whose trip to Taiwan in 2011 drew scrutiny from the OCE, as well as Sam Graves (Missouri) and Steve Pearce (New Mexico).

Left out of the report was California Republican Duncan Hunter, who spent $600 of his campaign funds on air travel for his family’s pet rabbit. The OCE investigated the expenditure — which Hunter’s spokesman, Joe Kasper, cited as an example of the office’s overreach.

“(The office) has in their report $600 in campaign expenditures for in cabin rabbit transport fees,” Kasper told The San Diego Union-Tribune. “Since travel is often done on (airline) miles — which is entirely permissible — the credit card connected to the account was charged several times even when his children were flying.”

“This was nothing more than an oversight. In fact, it’s such an obvious example of a mistake being made but [the office] wants to view it through a lens of possible intent. The same goes for many other expenditures,” he added. “Many of Rep. Hunter’s repayments had to do with mistakes under specific circumstances, and in other cases there were bona fide campaign activities connected to expenditures that (the office) was not aware of and didn’t account for.”

According to SDT-U, Hunter has had to reimburse United Airlines for misuse of campaign funds — which he blamed on “the campaign charge card being blue and therefore confused with a more appropriate card.” His $600 in pet air travel expenses weren’t itemized, leaving it ambiguous whether or not his rabbit was ever held to account.

Oh, please. Hunter, his staffers, and his campaign team all know the law and the ethics rules. Someone needs to put on his big boy pants and take a little responsibility.

But hey. Ethics, schmethics – Republicans want to drain the swamp directly into Capitol Hill.

‘Nuff said!

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.