The House Dems haven’t given up quite yet on the Nick Smith bribery scandal. Just when it looks nothing else is going to happen, the story gets revived!
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the second highest-ranking Dem leader in the House, wrote to Dennis Hastert recently, warning, as the New York Times put it, that “Democrats will conduct their own inquiry if the House leader does not act.”
“Until such time as the committee renders its own conclusions on the matter, the House will operate under a cloud of public suspicion,” Hoyer wrote to the House Speaker. He added that failure on the GOP’s part to follow up on this scandal would leave “no alternative but for individual members” to seek their own ethics inquiry.
This would be no small matter. House Dems and Republicans have worked under an unspoken “truce” in recent years — no one formally files official ethics complaints against the other. If the House Ethics Committee starts an inquiry on the merits, fine, but to avoid a constant barrage of investigations, both sides have held off from filing charges against the other.
It appears that Hoyer is willing to hold the GOP’s feet to the fire, letting them know just how serious he is about this. We already know a lawmaker was offered a bribe by at least one other lawmaker on the House floor before a vote. Considering the seriousness of the offense, Hoyer seems willing to risk full-blown ethics warfare over the House Republican’s negligence in pursuing a controversy obviously worthy of an investigation.
For his part, Hastert indicated he isn’t prepared to get involved, instead leaving it to the discretion of Ethics Committee Chairman Joel Hefley (R-Colo.).
Hefley said his committee won’t act unless there’s an official complaint filed. The House GOP leadership won’t file one, and if the Dems do file a complaint, it’d likely start a partisan war in the House. If the Dems don’t file a complaint, the Republicans will think Hoyer and the other House Dems lack the backbone to follow through on a serious controversy, encouraging the GOP to pull similar stunts in the future, confident they can get away with it.
Keep an eye on this one. It could ugly.