House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is working to buffer lawmakers from federal investigators. This is a bad idea. Special legal protections for politicians encourage unethical conduct.<\/p>\n
Irvin B. Nathan, general counsel of the House of Representatives, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday about establishing a protocol on how to handle “hopefully rare searches and electronic surveillance involving members of Congress.” Mr. Nathan previously failed to negotiate such an agreement with the George W. Bush administration when Republicans controlled the House. His return to this effort isn’t surprising given the number of congressional Democrats facing accusations of ethical misconduct.<\/p>\n
Democrats facing scrutiny include the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, for his close ties to the defense lobby firm PMA Group, which is under federal investigation; House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New York about a number of tax issues; Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. of Illinois over his reported effort to persuade ousted Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich to appoint him to fill President Obama’s former Senate seat; and Rep. Jane Harman of California, who reportedly was taped in 2005 by the National Security Agency purportedly agreeing to help seek leniency for two accused Israeli spies in exchange for help in lobbying her appointment to chair the House Intelligence Committee.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And neither should we, Congress is not above the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
House speaker Nancy Pelosi is apparently working to establish a protocol on how to handle searches and wire taps of congressional offices. She says\u00a0 she doesn’t want to limit law-enforcement wiretaps of congressional offices, just\u00a0 to clarify what are appropriate terms for notifying members about searches and tapped conversations. Huh?!? The Washington Times isn’t cutting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[160,131,624],"class_list":{"0":"post-2125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-politics","7":"tag-congress","8":"tag-nancy-pelosi","9":"tag-wiretaps","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-yh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1994,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/22\/pelosi-knew-about-harman-wiretap\/","url_meta":{"origin":2125,"position":0},"title":"Pelosi Knew About Harman Wiretap","author":"Jeff","date":"April 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Roll Call is reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed about the NSA wiretap's that caught Rep. Jane Harman discussing a possible deal with supporters of\u00a0 two former AIPAC lobbyists charged with espionage: The National Security Agency briefed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) \u201ca few years ago\u201d that they had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2460,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/02\/fiscal-irresponsibility-congresss-travel-tab-swells\/","url_meta":{"origin":2125,"position":1},"title":"Fiscal Irresponsibility: Congress’s Travel Tab Swells","author":"Jeff","date":"July 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"You would think record budget deficits and the need fiscal restraint would curtail Congressional travel... but you'd be wrong: WASHINGTON -- Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3627,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/26\/hey-big-spender-pelosi-led-congress-has-added-5-trillion-to-debt-since-2007\/","url_meta":{"origin":2125,"position":2},"title":"Hey Big Spender: Pelosi Led Congress Has Added $5 Trillion to Debt Since 2007","author":"Jeff","date":"October 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"From CNSNews.com: When Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)\u00a0gave her inaugural address as speaker of the House in 2007, she vowed there would be \u201cno new deficit spending.\u201d Since that day, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. \"After years of historic deficits, this 110th\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2829,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/07\/nancy-pelosi-value-added-tax-is-on-the-table\/","url_meta":{"origin":2125,"position":3},"title":"Nancy Pelosi: Value-Added Tax is “On the Table”","author":"Jeff","date":"October 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I've mentioned before that the Democrats were laying the groundwork for a European style Value Added Tax or VAT... I wish I could tell you I was wrong but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed that a VAT tax is \"on the table\" during an appearance on the Charlie Rose show\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2203,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/15\/leon-panetta-angency-briefed-lawmakers-truthfully-in-2002\/","url_meta":{"origin":2125,"position":4},"title":"Leon Panetta: Angency Briefed Lawmakers Truthfully in 2002","author":"Jeff","date":"May 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"CIA Director Leon Panetta today released a statement defending his agency from charges that it mislead mmeber of Congress: There is a long tradition in Washington of making political hay out of our business. It predates my service with this great institution, and it will be around long after I\u2019m\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1966,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/20\/caught-on-tape-jane-harman-aipac\/","url_meta":{"origin":2125,"position":5},"title":"Caught on Tape: Jane Harman & AIPAC","author":"Jeff","date":"April 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If even half of what's alleged in this Congressional Quarterly report is true Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) and former attorney general Alberto Gonzales have a lot explaining to do: Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}