BAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA... oh, sorry.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_frien...192662,00.html
Friday , April 21, 2006




WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the House ethics committee, Alan Mollohan, will leave the panel — at least temporarily — while he defends his own financial conduct, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday.

Mollohan's decision comes in an election year when his party is accusing majority Republicans of allowing a "culture of corruption" in Congress.

Mollohan, of West Virginia, will be replaced by Rep. Howard Berman of California, a former ranking Democrat on the panel. Mollohan has denied any wrongdoing.

The only evenly divided panel in the House, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct has been divided along partisan lines for the past 16 months and unable to launch any major new investigations. If Mollohan had stayed while under his own ethics cloud, the chances for the stalemate to end would have been almost impossible.

The Wall Street Journal reported two weeks ago that Mollohan steered millions of dollars to nonprofit groups in his district — with much of the money going to organizations run by people who contribute to the lawmaker's campaigns.

Also, a conservative group filed a complaint with federal prosecutors this year questioning whether Mollohan correctly reported his assets on financial disclosure forms.

While Mollohan's troubles threaten to become a major campaign problem for Democrats, Pelosi, of California, said in a statement that Mollohan decided on his own to step down and that she accepted his decision.

"The allegations against Congressman Mollohan originate from the National Legal and Policy Center, which engages in highly partisan attacks on Democrats," Pelosi said.

"The attacks are an attempt to deflect attention from the long list of Republican criminal investigations, indictments, plea agreements and resignations which have resulted from the reported long-term and extensive criminal enterprise run out of House Republican leadership offices," she said.

Using a phrase that has become a Democratic refrain, Pelosi said, "The Republican culture of corruption has been ignored by the ethics committee for a year and a half following the decision of the Republican leadership to fire their own chairman and committee members for doing their job."

While Mollohan and committee chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., had 16 months of friction, Berman had a good working relationship with former ethics chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo.

Hefley sought to have his term as chairman extended at the start of 2005, but he and two other Republicans were forced off the 10-member committee after having voted to admonish then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Since the beginning of last year, the two leaders fought over internal rules and staffing, and in a recent meeting discussed — but were unable to agree — on launching any new investigations.

 

that is just funny **** yo! Politicos are such douchebags

 

it must feel good to have to have one of the dozens of violations on the Republican's side balanced by one Dem crime. Oh the debauchery

 

Hahah is that what you truly think? It's pretty funny when the dems have accused the Republicans of so much wrongdoing but it's only stuck in just a few cases. Either the Republicans are just better at getting out of trouble, or the dems continually raise false charges and misleading propaganda to make the public think democrats have some moral high-ground. It's obvious that both sides hold folks whose rise to power required living life on the edge, including the edge of morality and the law.

It's really not that surprising in an environment where one party stands up and admits they are for killing babies.

 

Come on, I know that this adminstration is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq, but baby killers? That might be a bit far.