by Frank Holmes, reporter
When Nancy Pelosi first became Speaker of the House, she promised to lead “the most honest, most open, most ethical Congress in history.”
Chalk that up as yet another broken campaign promise.
Pelosi’s Democratic caucus continues to produce an endless stream of ethical and legal—to say nothing of moral—violations against laws, statutes, and ordinances, big and small.
In the most recent example of Pelosi’s lazy discipline of her own members, a nonpartisan ethics watchdog has leveled charges that three of Pelosi’s congressional Democrats have been caught red-handed breaking House ethics standards.
Democratic Reps. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, and Tom O’Halleran of Arizona all “violated a basic and straightforward ethics rule,” according to the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT).
All three linked their official work as congressmen to their reelection campaigns.
Incumbents have a head-spinning number of advantages when running against an outsider every two years.
To limit those, House rules say that congressmen are supposed to separate their official work from their campaign efforts…otherwise, all their work is just one big, taxpayer-funded campaign event.
But politicians continually try to blur — or step over — the line.
FACT says that Wild, Schrader, and O’Halleran all broke the rule the same way: online.
The House Ethics Manual states that “Member campaign websites … may not include a link to the Member’s House website; and The Member’s House website may not be advertised on his or her campaign website or in materials issued by the campaign.”
But FACT’s complaints have screenshots of campaign materials — some of them since deleted — that show the trio breaking this rule over and over.
FACT reproduces links to at least three times Kurt Schrader’s campaign links to his official, taxpayer-funded House website.
FACT’s official complaint features six times Susan Wild’s campaign linked to official House websites.
And FACT presents seven instances of Tom O’Halleran linking “to his official Member website, committee websites, and official Youtube accounts.”
The ethics complaints hit too close to home for at least one of these three. One article on Wild’s campaign website links to a page that links her official website six times; the link is now “inactive,” according to the Washington Free Beacon.
But Wild scrubbed it too late to get past FACT.
“This rule is straightforward,” said FACT’s executive director, Kendra Arnold. “It has an important purpose – not only does it protect taxpayer funds, but it protects against the common perception that a member of Congress’ first priority is running for reelection.”
O’Halleran is also dodging criticism hot-and-heavy. His campaign website links directly to the House Energy and Commerce Committee website, funded by government revenue.
“Conjoining campaign/personal websites with official, taxpayer-funded congressional websites is a clear and straightforward violation—and for good reason,” said Arnold.
The heat is on for all three of the Democrats—especially the two in red or purple states like Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Their opponents—and constituents—are asking why they should have to pay for political propaganda that fuels Democratic reelection campaigns.
“Arizonans deserve to know why Tom O’Halleran used government resources to campaign and is now lying about it,” said Torunn Sinclair, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, or NRCC.
But even though taxpayers’ dollars are arguably being weaponized to favor the richest, most elite people in the country, the media have been mum about the story—even though FACT has lodged three separate complaints with House ethics office Chief Counsel Omar Ashmawy.
It’s the latest Democratic ethics scandal that the mainstream media refuse to cover.
The media were so quiet about Benghazi, Operation Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, hiding official business by using private emails, and more that Barack Obama could get away with saying his administration didn’t have even “a smidgen of corruption.”
But the fact say otherwise…and not just for him.
Pelosi has been the target of multiple complaints over the years, including a charge by 40 separate organizations that she ran roughshod over House rules during her first impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Andrew Cuomo’s governorship is falling apart.
And now there are three new posters for Democratic ethics violations.
If politicians won’t follow the rules they set for themselves, why would they defend your rights?
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”