| For Immediate Release Mar 2, 2004 |
Contact: Press Office 202-646-5188 |
Held March 2, 2004, National Press Club, Washington, DC Good morning, I am Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch. Judicial Watch is a conservative, non-partisan public interest group that investigates, exposes, and prosecutes government corruption. Judicial Watch is pleased to join the other groups represented here in what can be best described as the government ethics movement, a movement that spans ideologies in its concern that politicians obey the law and, as importantly, be accountable to it. It is a lack of accountability for members of the House of Representatives that brings us together today. The illicit agreement between Republicans and Democrats to not bring ethics charges against each other, which has been in effect for seven years, has resulted in an ethics gap in the House of Representatives. The negative results of this ethics gap have been well-described previously by my colleagues. A little history is in order. This Republican majority, allegedly conservative, was elected 10 years ago by a public fed up by a Congress where corruption seemingly ruled. Think back – we had the check-kiting scandal and the stealing for funds from the House post office. The public was outraged and Republicans were swept into the majority. Rather than change the regime and create a rigorous ethics system as promised, Republicans over the last 10 years have eviscerated the ethics process and actually curtailed some of the minor ethics reforms they did institute. The party of small government has become the party of big corruption, or at least a party that countenances big corruption. And the Democrats have also put politics ahead of principle, agreeing to an ethics process that protects Republicans (and themselves) in the short term but also one that protects the Democrats in the long term if they regain the majority. The collapse of the House ethics process led to the spectacle of Gary Condit, a member of the House credibly accused of hampering a murder investigation, yet leaving Congress not even reprimanded by the House of Representatives. Yesterday, Judicial Watch requested the Attorney General’s personal supervision of the reported FBI investigation into the alleged bribery and extortion of Congressman Nick Smith. From a conservative perspective, the question arises whether this type of alleged criminal activity led to the largest increase in the size of government in nearly 40 years. Ethics do matter. The FBI has interviewed witnesses, including Congressman Nick Smith. But the House Ethics Committee has done nothing, or at least nothing we know about because it operates in virtual secrecy. We have presented reasonable reforms to the ethics process in the House of Representatives. Their adoption is essential if the American people are to begin to have their faith restored in Congress. The ethics gap must be closed. | |