Democrat Rep. Mollohan steps down from Ethics Chair

As I first reported in the post Culture Of Corruption could haunt Democrats, Representative Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), the ranking member of the ethics committee, was under investigation for ethical lapses, and the democrats were digging in their heels against calls by Republicans for him to step aside from his ethics post while the investigation continued.

Well, the democrats have finally realised that having your "paragon" of virtue under an ethical cloud was bad for your trumped-up culture of corruption charges.

According to Roll Call, they have reconsidered, and Mollohan will step down pending the outcome of the investigation:

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), under fire from Republicans and watchdog groups over his personal financial dealings, will step aside, at least temporarily, as ranking member of the House ethics committee, according to Democratic insiders.

When a democrat charged that Tom DeLay was a "rich white boy", I did some checking and found that he had very little money, according to his financial disclosures. If he was "corrupt", he had done a terrible job of it.

But checking Mollohan's disclosures, he went from being in debt to being worth millions of dollars in a few short years. That doesn't prove he is corrupt, but the money trail leads to people who have benefited from legislation he has passed.

Just last night Alan was on TV claiming he was innocent and insisting he wouldn't step down.

Of course, this will be used as another ploy by hte democrats to hold up the ethics committee. The democrats have shut down the only committee that can investigate ethics complaints in the house since last year -- the same time they launched their "culture of corruption" political campaign.

They clearly know that impartial investigations would show first that there is no culture of corruption, and second that what ethical lapses DO exist are bi-partisan in nature.

But by blocking the committee, the democrats (with the media's help) can make baseless claims about widespread corruption, without having to worry about any real investigations proving them liars.