So outrageous...

...it's scandalous.



I differentiate from the truly scandalous and the merely outrageous on the basis of actual mis or malfeasance that leads to investigation by a body with some kind of authority to sanction. Of course, on matters of Congressional ethics in the House of Representatives, that body would naturally be the Ethics Committee, if there were one in more than name only. There isn't, though, so the scandal is, in fact, the lack of investigation of this particular outrage.

It's not for lack of trying, though. Today, Shadow Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for instance, offered a privileged resolution calling for a bipartisan task force to conduct that very investigation.

The Stakeholder has more, including this from Pelosi's statement after her resolution was tabled by the Republican majority.

"Today, the Republicans dealt a blow to the ethical standards of the House by voting to declare their allegiance to the ethical standards of Tom DeLay.

"This resolution, however, was not about the Majority Leader personally, but about the ethics rules that have been gutted to protect him. Until now, there had always been a strong bipartisan effort on the Ethics Committee to uphold a high ethical standard in the House. But this year, the ethics rules were written solely by the Republican leadership, to protect one Member.

"That is unacceptable and Democrats will not take part in a fraudelent ethics process. We must restore the integrity of the ethics process and regain the confidence of the American people."

They broke it, and not only do they have no intention of fixing it, they won't even look at it.

But we can keep shining a light down the hole.