By The Prowler on 4.10.06 @ 12:09AM
And Democratic Reps. Alan Mollohan and Nancy Pelosi are in deep trouble.
House Democrat Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was
aware of the story being developed against one of her members, Rep.
Alan Mollohan (D-WV), and his questionable
finances and the ensuing political troubles, yet did nothing to act
on that knowledge.
The Wall Street Journal last week reported that
Mollohan's income and assets grew from the mundane (no more than
$565,000 in 2000) to the magnificent (about $6 million, give or
take a couple hundred thou in 2004). As the weekend wore down,
while House Speaker Dennis Hastert was calling for
Mollohan to step aside as ranking member on the House Ethics
Committee, the West Virginia Democrat's leadership was standing by
him.
"Mollohan's situation will work itself out. He hasn't been
charged with anything," says a Democrat leadership staffer. "But
his situation calls into questions Pelosi's political antenna.
People have been wondering about her sensitivity to these kinds of
situations, and the fact that she knew this was coming, and knew
that Mollohan's presence on the ethics committee would be a
problem, yet did nothing to inoculate the party from it, shows bad
judgment. It's why the talk of taking her out after 2006 keeps
getting louder."
Mollohan may be out of a job too, after 2006. National
Republican Congressional Campaign chairman, Rep. Tom
Reynolds has recruited a strong contender against
Mollohan, state delegate Chris Wakim.
Mollohan's situation, though, shouldn't let Republicans off the
hook: they have failed to frame the unethical behavior Rep. William
Jefferson and the questionable activities of Mollohan in the same
way that Democrats have framed the situations of Reps. Tom
DeLay and Duke Cunningham. "Their
messaging on this has just been awful," complains an outside
Republican political consultant about GOP House member efforts.
"We're taking a beating, and the Democrats are getting a free pass.
They have just as many problem children, if not more, than we do.
We should be hitting back hard."
One way to do this, say some legal experts, is for both Houses
to put some teeth back into the Ethics Committees.
topics:
Nancy Pelosi
