ShareThisThursday, November 16, 2006
Rep. John Doolittle's changed situation is dawning on him, albeit slowly.
At 6:27 a.m. the day after he eked out victory in an overwhelmingly Republican district, Doolittle sent out a press release announcing his intention to run for House Republican conference secretary, the No. 6 position in the Republican leadership.
The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress, reported that this "surprised some colleagues and staff." Stunned would be more like it.
Doolittle represents everything the American people repudiated last Tuesday _ links to corruption, unrelenting partisanship and unwillingness to consider alternatives in Iraq. He was part of the leadership team that brought about disastrous Republican losses in the election.
By last Wednesday afternoon, Doolittle had backed off, telling The Bee that he will not run for a position in the House Republican leadership. Good move. Republicans need a clean sweep in their leadership team.
The new emphasis on ethics in Congress may also bring rough times for Doolittle. In recent years, the Republican leadership decimated the House ethics committee. They limited ethics rules and prevented outside groups from filing complaints (which had been crucial in the past). They purged Republican members after the committee admonished former Majority Leader Tom DeLay for ethics violations.
Democrats have promised to target corruption and offer new ethics rules on Day One of the new Congress. Democrats also will be under pressure from a host of outside groups across the political spectrum _ from Judicial Watch to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics _ to rebuild the role of the ethics committee.
Democrats will have to find a balance between enforcing ethical standards among members of Congress and retribution, which they must avoid. They cannot appear to be scandal mongering when their top priority must be to re-establish the normal oversight function of Congress on the full range of issues from Iraq to Medicare.
Many House Republican incumbents with links to corruption scandals were defeated in the Nov. 7 election, but Doolittle remains. He is adamant that he will continue to pay his wife a 15 percent commission on campaign contributions, an issue that independent, nonpartisan groups _ such as Democracy21 _ have been pressing the Ethics Committee to investigate. These groups also have called for investigations into a host of other Doolittle activities. The ethics committee ignored these calls the last two years, but they will be hard to ignore now.
After being sidelined in the Republican leadership race, Doolittle told The Bee he's re-evaluating his situation: "The message from the election is that I need to ... be more in touch with my constituents and see how to best meet their needs." He also needs to get away from the K Street trap, where lobbying money and earmarks do nothing for his constituents or the nation. That's the real message of this election. Voters want a congressman, not an influence-peddler.
