Democrats Under Ethics Spotlight

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.

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(Susan Crabtree, “Ethics Spotlight Burns on House Dems,” The Hill, 9/09/09)