Ladies and Gentlemen of the House and Senate Ethics Committees,
As Committee members and as members of Congress yourself, you have seen what we have all seen, and probably a great deal more: Conduct in Congress that is both abusive and disruptive of the proceedings and privileges of both Houses of Congress; conduct that has time and again brought discredit and disrepute on the House or Senate, not just nationally, but internationally.
Since the beginning of 2009, you have silently stood and watched as the GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress abandoned their commitment and loyalty to the welfare of this country and its people in favor of their party and party supporters alone, as they openly called for the “total” obstruction of legislation by the Democrats and have acted in concert to obstruct and block over 500 pieces of legislation since 2009.
You have silently stood and watched as the GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress got legislation passed or repealed, not by debate, deliberation and a fair vote, but by attaching to the primary legislation, as a rider, a law that passes or repeals a separate law, and then threatening a government or agency shutdown if the legislation isn’t passed with the rider law intact. They have then denied all responsibility for their acts, instead blaming Democratic members of Congress for not acquiescing to their tactics.
You have silently stood and watched as the GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress abused their majority power in order to overturn and eradicate laws their party opposes; laws that were previously passed in Congress in a fair and open vote after thorough deliberation and debate. They have abused their power of majority and their control of finances by using it to defund programs and policies with which their party does not agree or to ostensibly “reduce government” to the desired size and content of what they, as a political party, think it should be; all without deliberation, debate, vote or compromise.
You have silently stood and watched as acts of disloyalty to the President, his person and his authorities by the GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress have occurred, time and again. They have called for the President’s defeat from almost the first day he was in office, declaring that the agenda of the GOP from the start was to ensure that the new president succeeded at nothing and is removed from office as quickly as possible. They have acted on this intent consistently, through forced repeal, threats of impeachment, lawsuits, and delays. Since 2011, they have held over 50 votes in attempt to repeal the President’s national health care legislation that was passed in early 2010 and currently they have the matter before the Supreme Court.
You have silently stood and watched as the GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress have invited a foreign leader to address Congress without the knowledge or consent of the President, so that this leader may openly denigrate the President’s participation and policy in negotiating an agreement with a foreign power. They allowed this foreign leader to speak against the President, not only before the joint session of U.S. Congress, but also before the entire country on network television.
You have silently stood and watched as the GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress have, to the tune of 46 of their 54 GOP members in the Senate, wrote to another foreign leader and not only attempted to interfere with the President’s sole authority to negotiate agreements, thereby placing our country’s national security in jeopardy, but also attempted to undermine and discredit his international authority as President by stating, in effect, in the letter, “don’t deal with our president 'cause you can’t trust him to follow through on an agreement." The negative repercussions of this act are still occurring at a national and international level.
You have silently stood and watched as the GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress failed to uphold the laws and legal regulations of this country by acting as a party to their evasion. GOP leadership has openly instructed States to ignore the climate change regulations. GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress have filed for extensions to delay the implementation of laws they objected to, attempted to force the repeal of these same laws, and have used their power of majority and control of finances to defund these laws. They have even filed lawsuits, doing everything within their power to evade the laws by blocking the implementation of these laws; laws that have been lawfully constructed through a fair and open vote or have been created through the lawful exercise of executive power.
You have silently stood and watched as the GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress has failed to give to the performance of their duties earnest effort and best thought, resulting in Congress having the lowest approval ratings in history and the title of “do nothing Congress” for several years in a row. They have failed to participate constructively in the business of the House and Senate by refusing to offer any constructive or alternate solutions to the laws or policies that they have so vehemently disagreed with, even when it is requested by the President, himself. They have limited their participation in the legislative process to single-minded destructive acts bent on the goal of blocking, repealing or eradicating those same laws and policies that they refuse to act constructively to improve. They have openly refused to compromise “on anything” and have acted in unified resistance to the Democratic party, regardless of the issue, creating a longstanding deadlock that has made it difficult, if not impossible, for the body of Congress to accomplish anything for the country and people which they serve; to accomplish the very purpose of their election to Congress.
The members of Congress have oft been told and are instructed in the Code of Conduct to “Uphold these principles, ever conscious that a public office is a public trust,” and yet you have silently stood and watched as they repeatedly demonstrated that they have little or no regard for this instruction. The GOP leadership and GOP members in Congress have abused the power that they hold in trust by using it for their own benefit and the benefit of a few. Their conduct has time and again brought discredit and disrepute on the House and Senate, not just nationally, but internationally.
You have silently stood and watched as the GOP leadership, in their drive to conquer, has turned Congress into a war zone, replete with midnight raids and carpet bombings. GOP leadership has barked orders at the GOP members of Congress, like war commanders barking orders to foot soldiers, demanding that they “Take the Citadel” and “Give no quarter.” And GOP members have obeyed, almost to the person.
Our forefathers, through the U.S. Constitution, in Article I, section 5, granted broad authority to each house of Congress to discipline its own Members. In furtherance of that authority and responsibility, both the Senate and the House created your offices, in 1964 and 1967, respectively. As such, your committees were charged with the task of “insuring proper standards of conduct by Members in the performance of their duties and the discharge of their responsibilities” (Senate Ethics Manuel, 2003) as well as the task of addressing complaints of “misconduct or behavior abusive to or disruptive of the proceedings and privileges of either House of Congress.” (Final Report of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress, 1993).
Both the House and Senate Ethics Manuals include injunctions that each member of Congress is to behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the either House of Congress. “To uphold this trust, Congress has bound itself to abide by certain standards of conduct, expressed in the Code of Official Conduct and the Code of Ethics for Government Service.” (House Ethics Manual, 2008) The principle of public trust is again restated by the House Ethics Committee in their Citizen’s Guide: “Government ethics rules exist to promote and enforce the proper conduct of public officials and to maintain public confidence in Government.”
Unfortunately, Congress has been down this road before. The progression of the story of Senator McCarthy, from its beginning with his Lincoln Day speech in February 1950 until its conclusion in December 1954 when he was censured for conduct (conduct that we now refer to as “McCarthyism”), is a cautionary tale that remains as relevant and instructive today as it was back then.
According to the Senate Ethics Manual (2003), in 1951, criticism of congressional investigative procedures began to increase with some commentators claiming that Members were abdicating responsibility for their behavior by relying on voters to “punish” misbehavior. It was felt that voters might not possess adequate knowledge of their Member’s behavior and were often quick to “forgive” Members disciplined by the chamber in which they served.
In 1951, Senator Paul H. Douglas convened a set of hearings ‘‘to review the ethical dilemmas and conflicting pressures which confront public officials and private citizens in their relationship to government: to identify and analyze specific improper practices and unfair methods’’ and to recommend remedies. The Douglas subcommittee recommended establishment of a government commission on ethics in government. The subcommittee found that Congress had been ‘‘unduly complacent’’ in failing to ‘‘act… vigorously to tighten its discipline in moral matters or to raise its ethical standards”
Then, as you know, it was in 1954 that the Senate ultimately voted to censure Senator McCarthy on 2 of the 46 counts of misconduct.
And yet, since 2009, you have stood and watched in silence what has been occurring in Congress. In all fairness, certain members of Congress have tried to intervene for some time in this matter, in an informal manner, using their powers of reason as well as publicly shaming the members responsible for this conduct. However, their efforts have clearly failed, demonstrating that the GOP leadership and GOP members have refused all attempts at reason and apparently have no sense of shame.
There must be formal action taken against them. It is common knowledge that silence and inaction is construed as consent and in conduct as dangerous as this, dangerous to the very ethical underpinnings of the democratic process, there can be no consent, actual or perceived. In the face of such extreme and ongoing misconduct, there must be at least the formal act of disapproval and denouncement.
One can only guess as to what lies behind the silence and inaction in this matter by either Committee. One member of Congress, whom I deeply respect, publicly stated that the GOP was “playing politics” and, in fact, much of this conduct has been dismissed by others as well as being “just politics.”
On that matter it must be made clear: No, this conduct is not “politics.” Politics in a democratic society, a Republic, is the art of governing through the power of persuasion and consensus building in the making of laws. The conduct we have seen is an affront to everything that politics and democracy stands for. To refer to or think of conduct of this type as “just politics” is to give an air of legitimacy and acceptability to the very thing that is destroying Congress.
Perhaps the inaction is due to the Committee’s concern that there aren’t enough votes in either house with which to censure or reprimand, assuming that all members would vote. However, it should not be possible that members who have engaged in this conduct are to be permitted to vote in the reprimand of other members who have engaged in the same or similar conduct. And I will add here that no member of the GOP in either House of Congress should be allowed to use the Lt. Calley defense of “I was only following orders” in this My Lei of the integrity of Congress, its members and democratic principles. Each one should be held accountable for their consent and participation by synchronized block voting, by crafting riders to repeal or pass to attach to “midnight raid” legislation, for their statements to the press, for their involvement in the planning and arranging for foreign leaders to address Congress, and for their individual signatures on letters to foreign leaders. Group conduct should not translate into immunity for any one.
Perhaps the inaction is due to the Committee’s concern that there can be no action taken as they have violated no law or regulation. Again, here we find that history is instructive. In 1954, the Senate ultimately voted to censure Senator McCarthy on two counts, one that had been recommended by the Select Committee, and one that had not been considered by the Select Committee: abuse of the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections and abuse of the Select Committee to Study Censure Charges. The Senate’s investigation and its final decision evidenced the Senate’s understanding that “censurable conduct” included conduct not specifically prohibited by rule or statute. (Senate Ethics Manual, 2003)
As the conduct is partisan at its core, perhaps the inaction is due to the Committee’s concern that action cannot be taken without it being partisan as well, or without creating an even greater partisan divide. However, to allow this unified and concerted partisan conduct, “group conduct,” to paralyze the entire Congress, such that it is helpless in using any of its powers or authority to manage or discipline behavior that is abusive to and disruptive of the proceedings and privileges of both Houses of Congress is unthinkable. To allow unified and concerted partisan conduct, “group conduct”, to render each member as well as the whole group immune can only lead to an end that is even more destructive to the integrity of Congress, its members and democracy itself, than what has already occurred.
There is every argument that this matter has reached such a serious and pervasive degree that the solution employed in the matter of Senator Joe McCarthy in 1954, at a time when there was no existing Ethics Committee or even a written set of rules in either the House or the Senate, needs to be employed again: Create the solution, perhaps a single-purpose select committee to handle the matter in both the Senate and the House. Unlike the McCarthy matter that dealt with one member of Congress, this matter involves multiple members of Congress belonging to one political party, thus the membership of this select committee could not be composed of other members of Congress and be considered fair and impartial. Perhaps it could be composed of independent, non-partisan private citizens, although the matter of giving them temporary non-voting (in legislation) member status in Congress would have to be addressed in order for them to have the Constitutional authority to act in this matter.
If there are there any other concerns that have prevented action in this matter, know, then, that the answer to each and every one will be the same: Figure it out. Find a solution. If the solution doesn’t already exist, create it. Take action. And then, if this destructive conduct continues, take action again and again, utilizing the principal of progressive discipline imbedded throughout federal government services, so that there is every opportunity for leadership and each member to correct and improve.
Herbert Spencer said in 1891 that the Republican form of government, what we call democracy, is considered the highest form of government because it requires the highest type of human nature.
Requires. And he is right. The moral integrity of the members and of the body whole, be it the Executive, Legislative or Judicial body, is the foundational bedrock upon which a Republic stands and survives and without which it will crumble and fall. Our founding fathers and forefathers knew this and repeated it many times. John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams, Charles Carroll, Oliver Ellsworth, and George Washington, to name but a few, all addressed this matter with varying words, but still expressing the same warning:
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."(John Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Second President of the United States)
and
"The aim of every political Constitution is or ought to be first to obtain for rulers, men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous, whilst they continue to hold their public trust." (James Madison, The Federalist Papers, 1788)
During the RFC Hearings in 1950, Senator Fulbright took the floor to speak on the subject of the moral deterioration in America. He identified as part of the problem that of government employees who committed ethical lapses not amounting to criminal conduct. He stated, in part, “
One of the most disturbing aspects of this problem of moral conduct is the revelation that among so many influential people, morality has become identical with legality. We are certainly in a tragic plight if the accepted standard by which we measure the integrity of a man in public life is that he keep within the letter of the law.” (Senate Ethics Manual, 2003).
What is being done now by the GOP leadership and GOP members has been accomplished by staying within the letter of the law but violating both the spirit of the law and every ethical and moral standard that is core to the democratic process in Congress, and democracy itself. If only the letter of the law is deemed relevant, and ethical and moral standards of conduct are deemed “non-binding” and irrelevant, then we have surely lost our country. And it will have been accomplished “legally.”
From
Metaphysical Outlaws in America