Washington was buzzing Tuesday about a potential change to the rules that was hotly debated and then scrapped. And a powerful Virginia congressman was at the center of the firestorm.
Michael Pope has the story.
Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke says the Office of Congressional Ethics is broken, and he had a plan to fix it. But that plan withered under a barrage of criticism, and it was eventually scrapped by Republicans.
Goodlatte says he believes the effort was the victim of “gross misrepresentation.” Geoff Skelley at the University of Virginia Center for Politics says Goodlatte is not alone in his concerns about the office.
“You know I think an important point that Goodlatte and critics of the office made is that it does perhaps raise questions about due process, about the ability of someone to file a complaint anonymously,” says Skelley.
But Quentin Kidd at Christopher Newport University says stripping the ethics office of its power and independence when a wealthy businessman is about to take office, and face a host of potential conflicts of interest, was poor timing.
“This was politically tin-eared at best for this to be the first action to come out of their control," Kidd says. "So Bob Goodlatte probably has some egg on his face, and it would probably be a good idea just to back away and do some yeoman’s work a while and stay out of the news.”
Goodlatte says he was disappointed his amendment was scrapped.
