Politics

?Unseemly Behavior?

By Paul Blumenthal

Last week, the New York Post reported that “[s]ome Republican congressmen have been warned to keep their distance from the female lobbyists who prowl Capitol Hill.” Roll Call followed on the report with this article. The article includes these curious paragraphs:

Boehner first told Roll Call of his conversations with House Republicans in late May after he asked former Rep. Mark Souder to resign after the Indiana Republican had an extramarital affair with a staff member.

Boehner said he had spoken to several Members over the past year and a half who, he believed, had done something or came close to doing something unethical.

?I?ve had Members in here where I thought they crossed the line,? Boehner said at the time, mentioning former GOP Reps. John Doolittle (Calif.) and Rick Renzi (Ariz.). ?I have had others I thought were approaching the line.?

Emphasis added. Both Doolittle and Renzi did not run for reelection in 2008 and haven’t been in office over the past year and a half.

Since it’s becoming the new norm–Mark Foley and Eric Massa–to question whether leadership is properly policing and referring to the ethics committee all potential unethical dalliances, it may be important to ask which, if not Doolittle and Renzi, members have “done something … unethical.”

That being said: Which members is Boehner referring to here and has he referred any of these cases to the ethics committee, or threatened to, over the past year and a half?

Does this simply refer to the case of former Rep. Mark Souder? (Souder, who was having an affair with a staffer, resigned after Republican leadership threatened to refer his case to the ethics committee.) Or are there others?

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on July 26, 2010 (boomark / email).