Congress Quietly Passes New Rule Allowing Hse Mbrs To Hide Records From Ethics Probes

Jon said:

so you agree with his gutting of the ethics office, since that has been ongoing since the end of the campaign till now but you started a thread criticizing the gutting of the ethics office?

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Gutting of the ethics office?

Trump's plan to avoid conflicts of interest is not a gutting of the ethics office (OGE).

Regarding Trump's nominees, I am not aware of any committee sending a nominee to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote without having received and reviewed all of the required OGE disclosures. I see no gutting of the OGE here.

However, the House rule change that was at some point the topic of this thread IS effectively a gutting of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) assuming the new rule has the impact that has been reported.

It should be noted that the Senate has no ethics office.

Jon said:

so you agree with his gutting of the ethics office, since that has been ongoing since the end of the campaign till now but you started a thread criticizing the gutting of the ethics office?

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He may not have been aware of the length of time it's been going on. Could be condemned on a technicality.
You could fill 100 M.E.Ts (Metropolitan Museum of Art) with all the opinions I've changed over my lifetime because I didn't have a crucial piece of info or wasn't aware of a circumstance. It's so easy to nail someone to the wall for stuff like that. Little knowledge gaps. There's so much happening and it's all being filtered through different channels - never mind the spin, simply collecting the data and allocating the "when" and "where" it happened is a tall order.
I'm a younger guy, grew up in the early 90's, and I made a comment during the last election about Newt Gingrich being one of the brightest candidates on the stage - especially during the debates (no comments about his politics). My friend went off on me about some action or lack of action that he took while he was speaker of the house during Clinton's campaign that should "totally disqualify him from every conservative voter's mind."
I was just thinking, "For Christ's sake! I can't know everything that every politician has said or done during every waking moment of their tenure." Yah there's being informed and educated but at some point you just know your gonna get dinged because you've got a knowledge gap. The political sphere is so vast that I really just try to sit and listen and read what's posted here and then chime in if there seems to be A: A perceived flaw in logic or B: A personal anecdote that I think could enrich the conversation.

I've just gone off for a few paragraphs constructing a hypothetical defense for a guy who may not need it, but I felt it should be mentioned in the midst of all these political threads. There's just stuff that folks aren't aware of. And there should be grace - grace to say, "Oh, well I didn't know that" and grace to say "No worries, now you know."

crimsonaudio said:

Far be it from me to defend Trump, and I've honestly not keep up with this since the congressional reversal on the decision, but didn't Trump rail against the vote placing the OCE under the HEC?

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yes, he tried to take credit for that.

crimsonaudio said:

Far be it from me to defend Trump, and I've honestly not keep up with this since the congressional reversal on the decision, but didn't Trump rail against the vote placing the OCE under the HEC?

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He essentially said reforming the OCE shouldn't be a priority right now given what else is on the docket.

Here's the tweet:

“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS”

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BamainBoston said:

The Ethics Commission went rogue quickly after it was established. That's the real story behind this.

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Care to elaborate? Seems to me that something like that or an Internal Affairs/Conviction Integrity Unit should be rogue and not beholden to who they are looking into.

seebell said:

Congress tried to gut the Ethic Commission and now this travesty. Have they no shame? Are the Repubs drunk with power?

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About as drunk with it as Obumma and his cronies the last 8 years.......yes.

BamaInMo1 said:

About as drunk with it as Obumma and his cronies the last 8 years.......yes.

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You say Obumma. I say Trumplethinskin.

seebell said:

You say Obumma. I say Trumplethinskin.

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And we can both find that we actually agree here.

Problem is, neither party gives a rats heiney about any of us and haven't for a long time.