Opening Remarks
Tom Fitton
President, Judicial Watch
February 3, 2006
The National Press Club
Good afternoon, I'm Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. Judicial Watch is non-partisan, educational foundation that fights government corruption. Judicial Watch advocates high standards of ethics and morality in our nation’s public life.
The motto of Judicial Watch is “because no one is above the law.” To this end, Judicial Watch uses the open records or freedom of information laws and other tools to investigate and uncover misconduct by government officials, and litigation to hold to account politicians and public officials who engage in corrupt activities.
With renewed public attention on the ethical conduct of government officials in Washington, we thought it would be useful to sponsor this discussion of “Ethics in Washington.”
Judicial Watch has been combating corruption in Washington for over ten years. We are a conservative organization, but we are not partisan. So, after first making our name combating the most corrupt presidency in our nation’s history, the Clinton presidency, Judicial Watch took on Republican corruption.
The Clinton cash machine raised money by, among other illicit methods, selling seats on taxpayer-financed trade missions in exchange for campaign contributions and selling policy favors and consideration by President Clinton and his administration to foreign nationals, including military officials from communist China.
Republicans, many of whom complained vehemently about these practices and called for prosecutions, almost immediately adopted Clintonian fundraising methods. In 2001, Judicial Watch filed a complaint with the Justice Department against Tom DeLay and the National Republican Congressional Committee for selling access to Bush administration officials to discuss policy in exchange for campaign contributions.
Lee Radek, then head of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, rejected JW’s call for an investigation and argued that offering policy meetings with government officials for campaign contributions is a perfectly legal practice. (After Judicial Watch cried foul over this “do nothing” standard, the Justice Department later backed away from this Clinton-era approach.)
So why, until recently, did the Justice Department fail to enforce bribery laws?
I think it relates to personnel and political will. Janet Reno’s Justice Department was simply not interested in pursuing any cases that might reflect unfavorably upon Democrats, in general, and Clinton, in particular. Radek, a Reno holdover, was demoted soon after Judicial Watch filed its complaint against Tom DeLay. When new blood found its way into the Justice Department, a fresh approach to prosecuting bribery followed. Will this politically-brave approach continue as it begins to impact congressional leadership or powerful committee chairmen? We shall soon see.
Whatever the reason for the Justice Department’s new-found interest in cases involving political corruption, it could not have come at a more critical time. The House and Senate Ethics Committees remain AWOL in the midst of these erupting scandals. Clearly, members of Congress have no intent on policing their own affairs. The recent rush to “lobbying reform” has already slowed. In the end, I fear “lobbying reform” will be the refuge of congressmen seeking to avoid accountability.
There are many noteworthy proposals to advance ethical and moral behavior by our elected and appointed officials. We’ll discuss, I’m sure, many of these proposals this morning. But I would suggest that the best reform is the aggressive criminal prosecution of bribery. Politicians will devise rules that make “ethical” behavior that would not allow any other American to sleep at night. We’re only hearing about lobbying reform now because politicians are fearful of going to jail. Let’s be clear -- nearly a dozen congressmen and senators, if reports are to be believed, face criminal investigations. The prospect of jail time will always be the best impetus for reform and good behavior.
Let’s now get to our panel. We are lucky to have here individuals with, collectively, decades experience in watching the mores of Washington.
Fred Wertheimer is the President and CEO of Democracy 21 and Democracy 21 Education Fund, which he founded in 1997. Wertheimer is a nationally recognized authority and spokesperson on the issues of money in politics, government accountability and ethics, and reform of the political system. Wertheimer served as President of Common Cause for fourteen years and as a political analyst and consultant for CBS News, ABC News and ABC’s Nightline.
A long-time veteran of Washington policy-making, Mike Franc is Vice President of Government Affairs for the Heritage Foundation. He oversees Heritage’s outreach to Members of the U.S. House and Senate and their staffs, as well as top-ranking administration officials. His expertise is highly sought by leading news sources such as New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe, as well as national broadcast news outlets. Franc also writes a regular column in Human Events that covers legislative developments on Capitol Hill.
Ralph Z. Hallow is a senior national correspondent for The Washington Times and is co-author of the book, Those Who Would Be President and Those Who Should Think Again, a book on the 1996 presidential elections. Hallow joined the Washington Times in 1982 following stints with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and the Chicago Tribune, where he served on the editorial board. In addition to being a three-time Pulitzer-prize nominee, Hallow received the American Conservative Union’s “Conservative Journalist of the Year Award” in 2001.
Gail Russell Chaddock is the senior congressional correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. Prior to her assignment in Washington in 1997, Chaddock was the Monitor’s Paris bureau chief. From 1992 to 1994, Gail was their Boston-based national news editor, responsible for the paper's daily coverage of US news. Before joining the Monitor in 1987, Gail was a political science professor and taught at Bennington College, Wesleyan University, and Swarthmore College.