John Conyers, probably one of the 2 or 3 most liberal members of congress, is probably best known for his appearance in Moor’s Fahrenheit 9/11 where he stated that congressmen don’t read most of the bills they sign.

Conyers is also known for his proposed (and hopefully dead) HR 288 which would grant special protection of Islam from public criticism.

More recently Conyers has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee who released a report on Conyers on the Friday before new years.

All of this is of current interest as Conyers is currently appointed by Pelosi to be the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and the third scandal clad nominee by Pelosi. Pelosi lost her bid to put John Murtha on as House Majority Leader and backed down on her bit to put Alcee Hastings as chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

The Examiner has a very good articel on Conyers:

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., is scheduled to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, but only because he agreed when Pelosi previously made clear that she intended him not to waste time on impeachment proceedings against President Bush. But now we learn that Conyers has his own problems with obeying the law.

There is so much wrong with the Conyers situation that Pelosi shouldn’t have to think twice about nixing Conyers’ chairmanship.

[…]

Pelosi should withdraw Conyers’ appointment as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee because he is unfit for the position and because the ethics mess simply cannot be cleaned up with such an individual leading the House committee most directly concerned with upholding the majesty of the law.

Strong words. Thankfully the Examiner goes on to list some specifics:

First, releasing its report late on Friday before the New Year’s holiday weekend made it clear that the House “Ethics” Committee intended to minimize public understanding of the Conyers scandal. This is classic Washington Establishment manipulation of the news cycle to insulate itself against public accountability.

Second, Conyers responded to the “Ethics” committee by “accepting responsibility” for a “lack of clarity” in asking aides to work on his re-election campaign while on the official payroll instead of going on a campaign staff, as the law requires, and to do personal chores for him. The allegations came from senior staff members, including a former chief of staff, not interns or other short-term aides who might have questionable motives.

Third, the “Ethics” committee report also concerned a second investigation of Conyers from 2003 on allegations that his aides also worked on the Carol Mosely-Braun presidential campaign and JoAnn Watson’s Detroit City Council race. Would Conyers have applied the same slipshod legal standards to his Bush impeachment effort?

Fourth, the Conyers scandal shows it’s still business as usual for the “Ethics” committee. Pelosi should demand that Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., the committee leaders who signed off on the Conyers report, be removed permanently from the panel and barred from leadership of other House panels.

Finally, Pelosi should heed former White House chief of staff and ex-congressman Leon Panetta, who said “you can attack one party for having a lack of ethics, but if any of your own members have problems, it dulls the message with the American people, they begin to put everybody in the same box.” In other words, whenever one member of the House has an ethics problem, it damages the credibility of all members of the House, including most especially its most visible leader, the speaker.

Now Pelosi has an interesting decision to make with Conyers - dose she stick to her pledge to clean up congress and pull his Chairmanship, or does she plow ahead and show that to her, ethics and corruption are just tools to be used in a very partisan battle.

Finally, it is important to note that this is not just a Democrat issue. The misdirected report was signed off by the current Republican leadership of the Ethics committee. The buck, as the say goes, stops with Pelosi. I hope she makes the correct decision.

Also reporting:
Captains Quarters
Wake Up America
Discerning Texan