Mel Watt (D), NC Loses His BS Bill

[CG6468]

Bipartisan House vote defeats bid to defund ethics office
 
By Curtis Tate and Jim Morrill
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Capping a week when Congress could agree on almost nothing else, the House of Representatives today soundly defeated an effort to cut the budget of the Office of Congressional Ethics by 40 percent.

On a bipartisan vote of 102-302, the House rejected the amendment, offered by Rep. Mel Watt, a North Carolina Democrat who was investigated last year by the office.

“Today, lawmakers stood up for ethics by rejecting Watt's misguided amendment," said Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group, in a statement. "Now lawmakers should take the additional step of strengthening the OCE by giving it subpoena power. The only lawmakers with anything to fear from an empowered OCE are those who have done something wrong."

Although Watt and seven of his colleagues were cleared of wrongdoing, in a letter to his colleagues Thursday, Watt called the panel's procedures "unfair and abusive" and said the more than $600,000 he proposes to cut from the office's budget "wastes taxpayer money."

Watt also said in the letter that he and his colleagues "incurred substantial expenses and experienced unjustified damage to their reputations in the middle of an election, and one of them actually lost his campaign."

He doesn't LIKE being investigated.

Poor Little Crook

[JohnnyReb]

I hope he soon loses his 200+ miles long "shoestring with knots in it" gerrymandered district.

[Rebel]

I hope he soon loses his 200+ miles long "shoestring with knots in it" gerrymandered district.

Damn, you ain't lying:

[CG6468]

Same thing in Illinois.

[thundley4]

I hope he soon loses his 200+ miles long "shoestring with knots in it" gerrymandered district.

I'm guessing that his district covers a lot of minority areas.

ETA:

IIRC, didn't several members of the congressional black caucus complain because they thought blacks were targeted by the ethics committee?

[Rebel]

I'm guessing that his district covers a lot of minority areas.

ETA:

IIRC, didn't several members of the congressional black caucus complain because they thought blacks were targeted by the ethics committee?

A lot of'em are corrupt. It ain't racist if it's the truth. They do nothing for their districts, yet they get rich as hell. Look at Rangel. Look at Mississippi's Bennie Thompson (f'n DOUCHEBAG). Hell, just guessing here, but I would assume that most of their districts see the slowest growth rate of any other district in the nation.

[Karin]

Seems Chicago-like.  "If you come after me, I'm comin after you."

[thundley4]

Seems Chicago-like.  "If you come after me, I'm comin after you."

It sounds more gang like. You shoot one of mine, I'll shoot two of yours.  Wait, you're right, it is Chicago like.

[docstew]

I hope he soon loses his 200+ miles long "shoestring with knots in it" gerrymandered district.

Redistricting maps are currently under consideration here in NC

[jaydeeuu]

Not surprising that Watt is up to his "old" tricks again attempting to use his power and influence to serve himself while ignoring well established laws. Just as he did in 1991 when he somehow convinced Mecklenburg County Superior Court Judge James U. Downs that a state registered trademark was superior to a previously registered trade name in Onyx Communications Group v. Juan Whipple (91-CVS-12107), winning a temporary injunction to stop a minority publisher from publishing his Charlotte Black Page directory and thus ruining his reputation and business.