Republicans Gut Independent Ethics Office

By dianeravitch

January 3, 2017 //

In the first action of the new Trump era, House Republicans stripped power from its independent ethics office.

Will the incoming president object? Not a chance.

Categories Ethics

52 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

Rudy Schellekens says:

January 3, 2017 at 9:53 am

How did I know this would happen? The FACTS:
A majority (small) of the Republicans, in a CLOSED meeting, decided to make changes in the OCE. This is an IN-HOUSE decision, that needs to be voted on by the entire House.
Since Democrats are against this (in public, in private they have complained as much about the current process – you be accused anonymously, incur thousands of dollars in legal fees, without ever knowing who accused you. Seems a bit unconstitutional to me, and quite a number of Republicans are against it, including Paul Ryan, there shouldbe no problem with this not passing.

So, the next time you share “news,” please make sure it is REAL news, and not “fake” news. I know you don’t like Republicans, but at least I hope you like TRUTH and FAIRNESS…

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 11:00 am
  
  Rudy,
  
  I know you are a Republican, but please acknowledge that the Dems never attempted to gut the ethics office, no matter what their private feelings (which you know, but I don’t)
  
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  - Rudy Schellekens says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 11:28 am
    
    http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2010/12/03/black_democrats_against_the_office_of_congressional_ethics.html
    
    http://humanevents.com/2010/03/31/democrats-awash-in-corruption-scandals/
    
    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/12/charlie-rangel-censure-cbc
    
    All three of the above deal with Democrats and the OCE – including their thoughts on it’s demise
    
    Food for thought, Dr.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 1:18 pm
    
    Rudy, you can post all the links you want to “prove” that Dems are as corrupt as Republicans.
    But Dems did not eliminate the Office of Congressional Ethics when they had the power to do so.
    The Republicans backtracked. They realized what they did was stupid.
    You are apparently the only person left in the US who defends what they did.
    
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  - Ellen Lubic says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 11:54 am
    
    I posted all this last night on the Lakoff stream. Have NO compunctions about breaking in on TROLL Rudy.
    
    Ellen Lubic
    January 3, 2017 at 1:16 am
    It would seem that it hardly matters what Lakoff or any of us say. Late today, the NY Times reports, the Repubs pulled and end run and did away with the Ethics Committee. Now Trump and his fellow turds have clear sailing even with the Senate questioners.
    
    Here is the article en toto.
    
    “With No Warning, House Republicans Vote to Gut Independent Ethics Office
    
    By ERIC LIPTONJAN.
    
    Representative Robert Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, in 2014. Mr. Goodlatte announced on Monday that the House Republican Conference had approved a change to weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics. Credit T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images
    
    WASHINGTON — 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.
    
    The surprising vote came on the eve of the start of a new session of Congress, where emboldened Republicans are ready to push an ambitious agenda on everything from health care to infrastructure, issues that will be the subject of intense lobbying from corporate interests. The House Republicans’ move would take away both power and independence from an investigative body, and give lawmakers more control over internal inquiries.
    
    It also came on the eve of a historic shift in power in Washington, where Republicans control both houses of Congress and where a wealthy businessman with myriad potential conflicts of interest is preparing to move into the White House.”
    
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    Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the majority leader, spoke out during the meeting to oppose the measure, aides said on Monday night. The full House is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on the rules, which would last for two years, until the next congressional elections.
    
    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.
    
    “Poor way to begin draining the swamp,” Tom Fitton, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, said on Twitter. He added, “Swamp wins with help of @SpeakerRyan, @RepGoodlatte.”
    
    Mr. Goodlatte defended the action in a statement on Monday evening, saying it would strengthen ethics oversight in the House while also giving lawmakers better protections against what some of them have called overzealous efforts by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
    
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    “The O.C.E. has a serious and important role in the House, and this amendment does nothing to impede their work,” the statement said in part.
    
    But Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, joined others who had worked to create the office in expressing outrage at the move and the secretive way it was orchestrated.
    
    “Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp,’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House G.O.P. has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions,” Ms. Pelosi said in a statement on Monday night. “Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress.”
    
    The Office of Congressional Ethics has been controversial since its creation and has faced intense criticism from many of its lawmaker targets — both Democrats and Republicans — as its investigations have consistently been more aggressive than those conducted by the House Ethics Committee.
    
    The body was created after a string of serious ethical issues starting a decade ago, including bribery allegations against Representatives Duke Cunningham, Republican of California; William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana; and Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio. All three were ultimately convicted and served time in jail.
    
    The Office of Congressional Ethics, which is overseen by a six-member outside board, does not have subpoena power. But it has its own staff of investigators who spend weeks conducting confidential interviews and collecting documents based on complaints they receive from the public, or news media reports, before issuing findings that detail any possible violation of federal rules or laws. The board then votes on whether to refer the matter to the full House Ethics Committee, which conducts its own review.
    
    But 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.
    
    The Office of Congressional Complaint Review would also have special rules to “better safeguard the exercise of due process rights of both subject and witness,” Mr. Goodlatte said. The provision most likely reflects complaints by certain lawmakers that the ethics office’s staff investigations were at times too aggressive, an allegation that watchdog groups dismissed as evidence that lawmakers were just trying to protect themselves.
    
    “O.C.E. is one of the outstanding ethics accomplishments of the House of Representatives, and it has played a critical role in seeing that the congressional ethics process is no longer viewed as merely a means to sweep problems under the rug,” said a statement from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, an ethics watchdog group that has filed many complaints with the Office of Congressional Ethics.
    
    “If the 115th Congress begins with rules amendments undermining O.C.E., it is setting itself up to be dogged by scandals and ethics issues for years and is returning the House to dark days when ethics violations were rampant and far too often tolerated,” the statement continued.
    
    One Republican House aide on Monday disputed the suggestion that the Office of Congressional Complaint Review was a new entity, arguing that the current staff would largely remain and that the outside board overseeing it would also continue to exist.
    
    “It’s the same office, same people, most of the same rules,” said the House aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record.
    
    Among the most prominent cases brought by the Office of Congressional Ethics since it was created was an investigation into Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, who was accused of intervening with the Treasury Department to try to assist a struggling bank in which her husband owned stock.
    
    Ms. Waters was ultimately cleared by the House Ethics Committee, but the committee criticized the actions of her grandson, who was then her chief of staff, and urged the House to consider broadening a ban on lawmakers’ hiring their relatives to include grandchildren.
    
    By moving all of the authority to the House Ethics Committee, several ethics lawyers said, the House risks becoming far too protective of members accused of wrongdoing.
    
    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.”
    
    This action makes all Trump’s illegal behaviors, lawsuits, pay for play, even murders on 5th Ave. should he choose, MOOT. We now have a 100% FASCIST government.
    
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    Ellen Lubic
    January 3, 2017 at 1:24 am
    This Ethics Committee death also shows the Paul Ryan and those who voted to pass this, are all total Fascists also and are willing to defile the Constitution and American democracy…all for power and cash.
    
    Only bright spot is that it was about 150 for, and 75 against….so there are some decent Congress people….but not enough to keep this from happening consistently for at least the next four years. Gone will be Dodd Frank, Consumer protection, EPA, Roe v. Wade, public schools, Obamacare and all other health care for the poor, Social Security, Medicare, the Post Office, and all public agencies. We will be ruled by Market Forces and the unconscionable greed merchants who support the Dictator tRUMP.
    
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  - jscheidell says:
    
    January 4, 2017 at 4:52 pm
    
    Diane,
    
    You must have missed her complaint – your comment was a heading full of fake news and if you had waited – Trump communicated quickly by the Trumptweetism he is known for and informed and changed the outcome – you were wrong twice –
    Please think twice before repeating any thing the Times regurgitates as facts
    
    Jumping the shark here, expected from liberals still wiping tears away
    
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  - Rudy Schellekens says:
    
    January 4, 2017 at 5:06 pm
    
    Interesting interview on NPR this morning, where the interviewer made the statement, “There was celebration in both camps when the news broke about the Republican plan to change some things with the IOCE…”
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 4, 2017 at 5:48 pm
    
    Yes, Rudy, the Dems were celebrating that the Republicans made fools of themselves
    
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  - Rudy Schellekens says:
    
    January 4, 2017 at 5:16 pm
    
    Ms. Lubec wrote, Quotation mark open – Ellen Lubic
    January 3, 2017 at 1:16 am
    It would seem that it hardly matters what Lakoff or any of us say. Late today, the NY Times reports, the Repubs pulled and end run and did away with the Ethics Committee. Now Trump and his fellow turds have clear sailing even with the Senate questioners – Quotation mark close
    
    FACT: The Republicans did NOT pull an “end run” nor did they do away with the Ethics Committee.
    FACT: The Republicans in a “caucus” meeting (Which is open to members only, just like the meeting the President has today with Democrats, where neither Republicans nor press are welcome). In that meeting a proposal was presented to place the Independent Investigative office of the Office of Congressional Ethics (TWO Different entities) under the oversight of the OCE. Both Ryan and McCarthy (plus 93 other Republicans) were against it, but the majority vote passed it.
    FACTS: This Rules package has to be accepted by the ENTIRE HOUSE – and with that many Republicans not supporting it, it would have gone down in a vote,
    
    So a lot of anger and confusion was spent today, which could have been avoided if people would actually listen and read…
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 4, 2017 at 5:44 pm
    
    Rudy,
    
    You may be the only person in America who still defends the House GOP effort to gut the Ethics office. Ryan doesn’t. Trump doesn’t. Kellyanne tried to but now everyone acknowledges it was stupid. Except you.
    
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  - Rudy Schellekens says:
    
    January 4, 2017 at 6:17 pm
    
    Rudy,
    
    You keep sending the snarky, sarcastic comments and I will keep deleting them.
    
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  - 2old2teach says:
    
    January 4, 2017 at 5:37 pm
    
    Trump’s tweet in no way erases the clear intentions of the Republican move to eviscerate the OCE. They got called out and backed off…for awhile.
    
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- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 12:14 pm
  
  This just in from Politico…shows what we real citizens can do with outcry.
  
  “Following a public outcry, and criticism from President-elect Donald Trump, House Republicans reversed course Tuesday on drastic changes to the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) offered a motion to restore the current OCE rules, and that was accepted by the GOP conference”.
  
  Read more: http://politi.co/2i6hAQE
  
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  - GregB says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 12:43 pm
    
    I fear this has much more to with style than substance. It does provide a glimmer of hope that resistance may not be futile. But very few, if any, battles will turn this quickly.
    
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GregB says:

January 3, 2017 at 9:54 am

Well, they are all good Christians. They don’t need ethics since they’ve accepted “their” savior in their hearts and will always be able to find some Old or New Testament scripture to cover their sorry rear ends.

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- Rudy Schellekens says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 9:56 am
  
  CHECK YOUR FACTS, please. Did you know that a number of Democrats are against this, as well? Or does that option not fit your world view?
  Do you know how the OCE works? Tell me, how would YOu respond to an anonymous accusation, where you have tp spend 1000’s in legal fees, without ever being told who accused you??
  
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  - GregB says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 11:03 am
    
    Rudy, this will be the last time I acknowledge anything you write. You are the poster child of the old joke about trying to teach a pig how to talk: it frustrates you and annoys the pig.
    
    When Democrats were in charge, they did not gut the ethics office. Good bye.
    
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  - Rudy Schellekens says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 11:14 am
    
    Easier than checking facts – ignore reality…
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 1:16 pm
    
    Rudy,
    
    Sometimes it is better to remain silent than to open your mouth and act the fool.
    If you insist on defending the indefensible, that is your prerogative, but not even Republicans are defending their pathetic effort to eliminate ethics oversight.
    
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  - Ken Watanabe says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 6:51 pm
    
    Rudy: please find the article that says BOTH House GOP and Democrats gutted ethics office, if you still insist you are correct.
    
    Lindsey Graham called out the move “stupid.”
    
    You’d better stop spreading misinformation for your best interest.
    
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  - Rudy Schellekens says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 7:29 pm
    
    Once again, you are distorting my words. I never said “voted.” I keep saying “discussed.” The links I supplied say “discussed.” But by the DEMOCRATS. I keep thinking that surely one person reads what I write without seeing red immediately.
    
    I mentioned the FACT that 1/3 of Republicans were against this idea. I referred to the FACT that the whole house had to vote before this could become reality.
    
    It is sad that an immigrant had to point out the way the US House of Representative works.
    
    And lo and behold: on tonight’s all things considered, what was announced? “The rules package would not have passed with that part in it.”
    
    Showing that yes,the process works – just like the immigrant said it would hours ago.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 8:20 pm
    
    Rudy,
    
    You are always right and there is no point ever disagreeing with your wisdom
    
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  - Ken Watanabe says:
    
    January 4, 2017 at 11:25 am
    
    Rudy,
    
    You obviously have no clue what you are talking about, don’t you!? You keep rambling on and on so much that you screech like 50-year-old jalopy as you swerve off the road every time you get responses you don’t like. No one is distorting your words–other than “you.”
    
    #Unapologetic apologism
    
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- Michael Fiorillo says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 10:45 am
  
  Yes, and as they never fail to remind us, these types are very proud of their humility.
  
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  - GregB says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 11:13 am
    
    I think Republicans’ new anthem will be the old Mac Davis song, “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way.”
    
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- ponderosa says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 2:00 pm
  
  Oh the irony of anti-tenure Republicans crying about lack of due process!
  
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  - GregB says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 2:23 pm
    
    Heard a good one the other day: Republicans don’t believe in due process, it’s doo-doo process they care about.
    
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retired teacher says:

January 3, 2017 at 10:06 am

The Republicans are setting the stage for their newly formed kleptocracy.

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- GregB says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 10:19 am
  
  It is going to be one horrifying performance.
  
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catsloveme says:

January 3, 2017 at 10:07 am

Remember President Nixon’s statement, “If the President does it, then it is legal.”? Congress just told us, “If a member of Congress does it, then it is ethical.”.

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- Rudy Schellekens says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 10:23 am
  
  “…those under investigation need increased protection of their due process rights, greater access to basic evidentiary standards, and a process that does not discriminate against them for invoking those rights…”
  
  In other words, your constitutional rights to face your accuser and have access to the documents involved are being pushed aside.
  
  I don’t know what kind of work you do, but if you want to work in a place where this happens, go for it.
  
  One former co-worker filed an harassment suit against the District, our supervisor and me, personally. She quit one day, and the next day the paperwork was delivered. I was informed WHO filed the complaint, WHAT the complaint was about (Religious harassment), what documents were filed.
  
  That is how the constitution says it has to work. Because of the nature of the suit, and the fact that I had documented carefully what problems arose, I did not need a lawyer.
  But had it been any other kind of harassment, It would have cost me a bundle. And when the complaint was found ungrounded, I would not be allowed to sue the former co-worker for my expenses!
  
  Now put yourself in your representative’s place, You do not know your accuser. You ask for access to the documentation, and that is held against you. Your basic constitutional rights have been violated – and whatever you say about the process, will be held against you., And when in the end, you are cleared, you have large legal fees to pay – and cannot sue anyone to get the money back.
  
  Doesn’t anybody on this list even know?
  
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  - 2old2teach says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 7:44 pm
    
    I would laugh if crying wasn’t more appropriate. Due process? Who has that? As a teacher without tenure, my “rights” were pretty much non-existent, even as a member of a union. Does anyone really wonder why so many teachers prefer to remain silent? All this talk of eliminating bad teachers should be matched with making sure good teachers are not victimized. So maybe the rules under which the OCE operates need to be tweaked. Eliminated? Hah!
    
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  - Rudy Schellekens says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 7:49 pm
    
    When another teacher levels a complaint about you, will your district accept such anonymously?
    When a complaint is lodged against you, do you have access to what the actual complaint is?
    Do you have to hire an attorney to defend yourself accounts a complaint in your district?
    Do you become more suspect because you ask for these things?
    
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  - Ellen Lubic says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 8:35 pm
    
    I won’t endlessly engage with Rudy…but in LAUSD, the current Geragos class action lawsuit is joined by now over 1,000 teachers who were either fired without due process or were stuck in teacher jail prior to punishment based exactly on the word of another teacher/s or of administrators, or unknown sources. Rafe Esquith was reported by an overwrought colleague who heard him quote Mark Twain and use the word “nude” for which she reported him and ruined his life. Many LAUSD teachers have reported on their own stories here to this same end. Do your homework and read up on this in these archives and in the archives of the LA Times.
    
    It is disgusting to me to have a non educator, who was born and raised and educated in a foreign country, self determine that he is the final arbiter of education issues. And it is suspicious to have such determination in the face of months of being proven wrong on most of his comments.
    
    Go away Rudy. You certainly seem to be a major source of harassment…and a boring bloviator.
    
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- Joe says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 10:59 am
  
  If a GOP member of Congress does it, then it is ethical. If a Democrat does anything, she/he must be immediately punished as ordained by the Lord Most Holy Cheney.
  
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Lisa B says:

January 3, 2017 at 10:12 am

Boy, are we in for a few years of corruption and cover up! Not like we haven’t had it for the past 20-25 years….but it will be in overdrive this time :{

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Edd Doerr says:

January 3, 2017 at 10:47 am

This shows what the Repubs think of ethics.

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carolmalaysia says:

January 3, 2017 at 10:51 am

BREAKING NEWS from the NYT

Headline: Donald Trump rebuked House Republicans, saying there were more important things to do than “weakening” the independent ethics office
Tuesday, January 3, 2017 10:30 AM EST

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday criticized House Republicans for their surprise move to gut an independent congressional ethics office on the eve of a new legislative session, saying they should focus instead on domestic policy priorities such as health care and a tax overhaul.

In a pair of postings on Twitter, Mr. Trump called the Office of Congressional Ethics “unfair,” but said focusing on it now was a case of misplaced priorities. He appended the hashtag “DTS,” an apparent allusion to his promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 10:55 am
  
  That’s good to hear. No doubt, the House Republicans thatTrump would disregard their actions. The Trump effect.
  
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Michael Brocoum says:

January 3, 2017 at 11:04 am

Will Obama stake out a very public and forceful position against gutting the independent ethics panel? I doubt it.

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Abigail Shure says:

January 3, 2017 at 11:09 am

Trump is in favor of ethics! It is like a breath of fresh air on a rainy day in Newark. Next he will state his opposition to conflicts of interest.

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NoBrick says:

January 3, 2017 at 11:18 am

A “psychotic break” of sorts???

“Stripped of the false realities of democracy, legitimate media authorities, and American exceptionalism, U.S. society is having a “psychotic break” of sorts. What many Americans have previously believed to be “reality” is disintegrating.

Science provides us with no monolithic explanation for what is commonly called a psychotic break, but for some people who have lived this experience, they describe their sense of who they’ve believed themselves to be as disintegrating in a massive way, a discovery that their sense of self is in some way false. This experience can be overwhelming, emotionally and cognitively, and can propel them into an altered state.

Every so often, the American societal-political veil lifts, and what was clear to George Carlin and other cynical nonvoters is difficult to deny even for voters skilled at denial. In the 2016 presidential selection/election process, the veil lifted, making it difficult even for previously trusting Americans to continue to believe that they lived in a democracy that provides them with a choice and a say, and made it difficult to continue to believe in the legitimacy of mainstream media. Even for those skilled in denial…” Bruce E. Levine

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ponderosa says:

January 3, 2017 at 11:49 am

Fitting. Ethics is no longer a part of conservative Christianity. It’s all about personal salvation through faith. Ethics –i.e. doing good –is totally dispensable. It has no bearing on whether you’ll get to Heaven or not.

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carolmalaysia says:

January 3, 2017 at 12:37 pm

January 03, 2017
The New York Times
NYTimes.com »
Breaking News Alert

BREAKING NEWS
House Republicans reversed course and withdrew a plan to gut an ethics office, after intense criticism from Donald Trump and others
Tuesday, January 3, 2017 12:27 PM EST
The reversal came less than 24 hours after House Republicans, meeting in a secret session, voted to eliminate the Office of Congressional Ethics, created in 2009 in the aftermath of a series of scandals involving House lawmakers.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 12:58 pm
  
  The outrage must have been universal. It shows that even these hard-shell lackeys of plutocracy are sensitive to public criticism.
  
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- Rudy Schellekens says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 1:09 pm
  
  Really? How much more inflammatory do you want to make this??? It was a “Closed” meeting, and everyone that needed to be there, was there. Nothing “secret” – unless caucus meetings are considered “secret meetings?”
  
  No Democrats allowed – normal, it’s a meeting for Republican members of the House
  No Press allowed – normal, because it is a meeting of the Republican members of the House
  
  Democrats do not invite Republicans to their “closed” meetings, nor do they invite the press.
  
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 1:11 pm
    
    Rudy,
    
    Keep apologizing for the neanderthals in the Republican party.
    
    They did themselves proud by revealing their contempt for ethics.
    
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  - Rudy Schellekens says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 1:26 pm
    
    You really don’t like reality, do you? I have sent you UNBIASED links showing that Democrats have problems with the OCE as well, and have had their OWN discussions on the subject of changing.
    Is it okay of the Democrats make changes? Are Democrats not corrupt? Dare I mention Rangel? Jefferson? I can go on for a bit with mentioning Democrats if you want to.
    
    Yes, Republicans messed up, ethically, through the years. But not more (or less) than Democrats. No one denies that. For every Republican you list, I can list a Democrat.
    But that is not the issue.
    Ethics are important. But so is constitutional action. The current OCE breaks the constitutionality aspect. Check it out for yourself.
    
    The problem I am running into here is that your credibility is getting less and less when you REFUSE to see the whole picture.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 1:30 pm
    
    Rudy,
    
    I echo what GregB wrote earlier. You have a closed mind. I am not going to respond to anything more you write.
    The Republicans sought to close down the Office of Congressional Ethics. The Democrats have had corrupt members in the past, maybe in the present, but they never never never were stupid enough to attempt to shut down the OCE.
    
    My last exchange with you. Obstinacy is your middle name.
    
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  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 3, 2017 at 2:09 pm
    
    Rudy,
    
    Every time you cast doubt on my intelligence and integrity, you can be sure that your comment will be deleted before it is posted. Keep it up.
    
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carolmalaysia says:

January 3, 2017 at 1:16 pm

Is the ethics office interested in lying being a problem? Check out this video.

Video: Trump’s Bullshit Sonata, media fact-checks his favorite lies…one by on

President-elect Donald Trump spread numerous falsehoods, myths, and outright lies about the state of the American economy in 2016. As the year comes to a close, Media Matters offers eight examples of journalists and media outlets debunking Trump’s outrageously misleading statements.

Published on Sep 23, 2016
Donald Trump lies—a lot. Watch media figures fact-check Trump’s favorite lies, one by one.

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- GregB says:
  
  January 3, 2017 at 1:27 pm
  
  Thanks for posting. But it almost spoiled Beethoven! 🙂 Almost.
  
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