Murphy should disobey Pelosi and "be a Flake"

Politico is reporting that the US House of Representatives' Democratic Leadership will not tolerate good government... at least not in relation to an initiative brought forward by one of my favorite Congress-critters, Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

Patrick O'Connor & John Bresnahan report:

As the House prepared to vote this week on Republican Rep. Jeff Flake’s push for an ethics investigation involving Rep. John Murtha and other senior appropriators, Democratic leaders sent an unmistakable message to their members:

“Don’t be a Flake.” ...

In another pre-vote e-mail, the office of House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) warned Democrats that they would suffer in 2010 if Republicans succeeded in forcing an ethics investigation into the relationships Murtha and other veteran Democratic lawmakers had with the PMA Group.

I first noticed the NYTimes reporting on the Murtha / PMA scandal in October. So it's been out there for a while.

The Politico piece mentions several young Dem lawmakers who support Flake and believe in good government. I'm perfectly happy having those members of Congress remain in Washington. For me, issues of good government are non-partisan. The trouble is, you usually have the party in power opposing good government and therefore those so-called leaders must go. At the moment, it's Nancy Pelosi and Jack Murtha. If they insist on "protecting their own," then they both need to go.

I haven't looked yet, but hope Congressman Chris Murphy supports good government and opposes Nancy Pelosi's bad government obstructionist tactics. I don't have high hopes for him though at this moment. He's still sitting on the sidelines with regard to Congressman Ron Paul's HR 1207 - Audit the Fed bill.

Tim White