Green gladly sheds ethics panel burden

Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) has told Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) that it is time for him to get rid of the uncomfortable job of
policing his peers.

Green is the acting chairman of the ethics panel, appointed
to the temporary post after former Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) died in
August. In a brief interview before members left for the winter recess, Green
said his time on the panel is limited and he has no interest in continuing the
thankless job.

{mosads}“The Speaker and I have talked and I told her that I was
ready to go,­ can’t get away fast enough, really,” he said.

House rules impose a three-term limit on ethics committee
service, but that limit can and has been waived for the chair if the Speaker
requests it.

“Very few people want to serve on the ethics committee,
especially as chairman, so when they find someone willing to do it, they often
keep them,” said Craig Holman, an ethics expert at Public Citizen.

Stan Brand, a Democratic ethics lawyer, said he remembers
then-Rep. Louis Stokes’ (D-Ill.) angry reaction when he convinced then-Speaker
Tip O’Neil (D-Mass.) to name him to chair the panel.

“Twenty minutes later I got a call from the floor because
Stokes was trying to find me and he wasn’t happy,” Brand recalled.

Green said Pelosi has agreed to let him leave the
committee, even though the timing may put her in an awkward position. The panel
will face a mass exodus in January and is in the middle of investigating Ways
and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Democratic Reps. Lucille Roybal Allard (Calif.) and Mike
Doyle (Pa.), who also have served their three terms, are expected to depart. Rep.
Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who was tapped to replace Tubbs Jones, also said he too
does not expect to remain on the committee.

Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), who joined the committee
last year, is the only Democratic member without a term-limits excuse to leave
the panel. For that reason, Democratic sources said, he is the most likely to
be tasked with wielding the gavel.

On the Republican side, Rep. Doc Hastings (Wash.) must
leave the ranking spot after winning the top GOP position on the Natural Resources
Committee after Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) was forced out earlier this month.
The other Republicans on the panel, Reps. Jo Bonner (Ala.), Gresham Barrett
(S.C.), John Kline (Minn.) and Michael McCaul (Texas), were newly named to the
committee this Congress and are expected to stay on.

The mad dash out off the panel will take place at the end
of this Congress in early January, the same time Pelosi said she expects the
ethics panel to wrap up its investigation in the allegations piling up around Rangel.

The comment got Pelosi into some hot water with
Republicans because the ethics committee’s activities are supposed to be secret
and completely free from even the appearance of any outside interference.

Since her comments, the panel has expanded its Rangel
probe to include new allegations.

If Delahunt is named chair, Pelosi must find other
Democrats she can strong-arm into serving on the panel, which will continue to
review any new allegations against Rangel, or the existing charges if the
current committee does not finish its work and issue an initial report on its
findings. Any choice Pelosi makes will be analyzed for any Rangel implications.
If the member is African-American, that could be viewed as an attempt to help
Rangel, even if Pelosi tries to sell it as a way to fill Tubbs Jones’ old post
with another African American.

“This puts the Speaker in a very awkward position,” said
Holman. “She does not want to get in the middle of defending or attacking
Rangel.”

Brand suggested Rep. Mike Capuano, the straight-talking
Democrat from Massachusetts who led the creation of Pelosi’s unpopular new
Outside Ethics Office, which will provide some type of independent review to a
tarnished ethics process. But even as he was doing it, Brand apologized for
mentioning his Capuano’s name.

“He just struck me as someone who had the right
sensibility and the right demeanor for the job ­ a solid, institutional person
who doesn’t take it personally when he gets criticized from both ends of the
political spectrum,” Brand said.

Capuano spokesman Allison Mills was tight-lipped on the
topic.

“That’s not a rumor we have not heard,” she said.