Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Ethics in Washington. Kinda Like Snow in July.

With House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) in the crosshairs of a House ethics investigation, opposition researchers from both parties are drawing beads on other potential targets. It could turn into a full scale ethics war.

Opposition researchers are the people who dig through records to dig up the dirt on members of the other party. Right now, they've been digging through disclosure forms to see who else has failed to properly report where their money came from.

Rep DeLay's disclosure forms show he took 14 trips that private interests paid for -- at a total of $94,000 -- since 2000.

But over that same time, all members of Congress took $16 million worth of trips that private interests paid for.

That's a big paper trail that should be a target rich environment for Democrats and Republicans to launch a finger pointing campaign at each other. (CSM)

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