Pelosi Lets Corruption Flourish

An editorial from the New York Times:
The House investigation of Representative Charles Rangel’s ethical gaffes and misdeeds was supposed to be completed in January, by the initial estimate of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But the inquiry blithely rolls forward in secrecy — except for the recent disclosure that the ever feckless ethics committee has been without a chief counsel for the last eight months.

This glaring handicap, reported by Politico.com, is hardly a confidence builder for taxpayers as Mr. Rangel, a Democrat of New York, continues to wield the gavel on the Ways and Means Committee amid the nation’s economic trials. T
he congressman asked for the inquiry, which is reported to be in subcommittee, after news reports of assorted questionable dealings.
There was a violation of House standards in Mr. Rangel’s using an official letterhead to solicit outside donations for a public service center at City College of New York extolling “inspirational aspects” of his career. An oil executive who obliged with $1 million saw Mr. Rangel help protect an off-shore tax loophole worth tens of millions to the donor.
Mr. Rangel denies any quid-pro-quo violations, conceding a few irresponsible mistakes at most. But other serious issues are whether the House gift and ethics rules were violated by the congressman’s cut-rate use of rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem and his failure to disclose income and pay taxes on his Dominican villa.
Speaker Pelosi won her job with a convincing denunciation of the Republican Congress’s “culture of corruption,” plus a ringing promise to “drain the swamp” where House ethical standards festered. She deserves credit for forcing through the new quasi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics to vet and funnel complaints to the sitting ethics committee.
The office has begun work, though lacking critical subpoena power. It has 10 reviews of allegations under way, including one into the potential involvement of Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. in the alleged auction of President Obama’s vacated Senate seat by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

It remains to be seen whether the new office results in greater transparency and public confidence in Congress — or more of the rope-a-dope ineffectiveness epitomized by the ethics committee. Speaker Pelosi should have had Mr. Rangel surrender his gavel during his ever lengthening ethics investigation. This failure will be compounded unless she prods the committee to fill its embarrassing absence of a chief counsel.