December 6, 2005

Melissa Hart does the Right Thing

I'll leave it to you, oh gentle reader, to decide whether the title is a pun.

The AP has recently reported that some members of the US House of Representatives are returning the donations they got from disgraced former Congressman "Duke" Cunningham. This includes our own Missy Hart. Check out the story here.
Other lawmakers who have announced they had donated the money or planned to do so were Reps. Mary Bono of California, Jim Gerlach and Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania, Rob Simmons of Connecticut, Michael Ferguson of New Jersey, Jon Porter of Nevada, Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska and John Sullivan of Oklahoma.
On a side note, leave it to that bastion of political ethics, Katharine Harris, to keep the Dukester's ill-gotten cash.

The interesting part of the story, though, is that The Dukester has been under criminal investigation for sometime now. But check out this out:
For months, Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham was the focus of highly public federal investigations, and this week pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion charges.

Throughout, the House ethics committee, which is supposed to look into wrongdoing of members, has been silent.
Cunningham pleaded guilty to taking $2.4 Million in bribes and the Ethics Committee of the Republican controlled House of Representatives has made nary a peep in the matter.

So it's a good thing that Missy Hart returned the thousand dollars Cunningham donated to her various campaigns, seeing how she's on the House Ethics Committee.

By the way, the Republican chair of the Committee, Doc Hastings, has also received some Cunningham cash. Take a look.

So in a nutshell, Ethics Committee member Melissa Hart accepted contributions from Randy "Duke" Cunningham and now only after he's pleaded guilty to bribery charges, does she decide to donate the cash to charity. But before the California Republican pleaded guilty, the House Ethics committee said nothing about Cunningham's corruption.

Hmmm...don't you think someone should ask her about this?

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