Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the chair of the House Republican Conference and the #4 leader in the chamber, received some good news and some bad news from the House Ethics Committee this week. Zack Roth reported this week: A House committee won’t appoint a special investigative panel to probe whether a top Republican improperly used official funds to boost her political career – for now. But the committee also isn’t dropping the case. With the allegations in mind, the Ethics Committee went on to recommend subpoenas for two former members of McMorris Rodgers’ team: new media director Patrick Bell and consultant Brett O’Donnell. Wait, Brett O’Donnell? Why does that name sound familiar? Oh, right. His name came up just last week: he’s the former debate coach from Jerry Falwell’s college whom Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) hired as a rhetoric coach. Broun used public funds to pay O’Donnell and when asked about the arrangement, the congressman decided he didn’t want to talk about it. Among other things, there were ethical considerations at play – did Broun, now a U.S. Senate candidate, use our money to hire a rhetoric coach for partisan political ends? And now it seems McMorris Rodgers is feeling some heat from the ethics panel, at least in part because she hired the exact same coach, whom she also paid with public funds.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 01:46:21 +0000
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