The ethics spotlight on House Democrats is intensifying amid predictions from political analysts that Republicans will pick up many seats in next year's midterm elections.Few are going so far as to say that the GOP will win back the House, but ethics controversies are key to the rise of the minority party in the lower chamber. Republicans capitalized on Democratic ethics woes to win the House in 1994 and Democrats turned the tables on the GOP in 2006, catapulting Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Speaker.
Republicans are planning to use ethics as a weapon in the 2010 election.
Democrats didn't need any more bad news during an unusually bruising healthcare debate during the August break, but House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) attracted more headlines when he failed to disclose at least $650,000 -- and possibly millions of dollars -- in assets on required congressional forms.
Newspapers across the country -- including The Washington Post -- have called on Rangel to give up his Ways and Means post while the ethics committee evaluates the many ethics allegations that have been detailed in various media accounts.
Some Democratic aides have tried to downplay Rangel's problems, claiming that most voters are paying attention to healthcare reform and are unfamiliar with the controversy swirling around the House lawmaker.
However, there are signs that the Rangel controversies are extending well beyond the Washington Beltway. Late last week, Rangel ranked No. 10 in a list of popular Yahoo searches, after the U.S. Open, the swine flu vaccine, Vice President Joe Biden and movie director Guy Ritchie.
"Allowing this to linger without resolution for this long is not healthy or good for anyone," said Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for the government watchdog Common Cause. "It's not good for Rangel, it's not good for the public and it's not good for Congress as an institution."
To make matters worse for Democrats, two central players in a defense earmark prosecution are set to be sentenced this fall. That will likely prompt new waves of media attention to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), who requested the earmark at the heart of the case.
Pelosi has said she will take no action against Rangel or any other member unless the ethics committee recommends punishment or a prosecutor brings criminal charges.
As minority leader, Pelosi did not wait until formal charges were filed against then-Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.). But after an FBI investigation reportedly turned up $90,000 in Jefferson's freezer and triggered concern from some House Democrats about the upcoming 2006 midterm elections, Pelosi removed Jefferson from the Ways and Means Committee. Jefferson was indicted on corruptions charges in 2007 and convicted this year.