'Most ethical Congress in history'

Or so promised the incoming House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

But it seems that Rep. John Conyers, the incoming Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, didn't get the memo.

Conyers was recently chastised for breaking House ethics rules.

Michelle Malkin sums it up thusly:

Business. As. Usual.

The back story: As The Hill newspaper reported last spring, "two former Conyers’ aides alleged that he repeatedly violated House ethics rules by requiring aides to work on local and state campaigns, and babysit and chauffeur his children. Deanna Maher, a former deputy chief of staff in the Detroit office, and Sydney Rooks, a former legal counsel in his district office, shared numerous letters, memos, e-mails, handwritten notes and expense reports with The Hill. They also sent the same materials to the House ethics panel, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office."

As the Washington Times recounted, Maher also alleged that the congressman allowed a former top aide convicted of fraud to obtain a fake passport through the office, and then fled to Ghana.

Conyers even accepted responsibility after being tut-tutted by the House Ethics Committee. From The Hill:

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has "accepted responsibility" for possibly violating House rules by requiring his official staff to perform campaign-related work, according to a statement quietly released by the House ethics committee late Friday evening.

The top Republican and Democratic members on the ethics panel, Reps. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), said in a statement that Conyers acknowledged a "lack of clarity" in communicating what was expected of his official staff and that he accepted responsibility for his actions.

"[Conyers] agreed to take a number of additional, significant steps to ensure that his office complies with all rules and standards regarding campaign and
personal work by congressional staff," they stated. "We have concluded that this matter should be resolved through the issuance of this public statement."

The finding by the ethics panel could spark debate, and perhaps eclipse, the first week of the incoming-Democratic majority’s plans to change the House ethics rules, as well as raise questions about Conyers’ standing to chair the Judiciary Committee.

Naturally, Pelosi has said that Conyers will keep his new position, anyway.

Sadly, Conyers - and Pelosi, for that matter - have a much different view of "ethics" and "justice" than I do.

Stand by for the short-lived era of crooked Democrats.

There's more at Flopping Aces and Sister Toldjah.