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Amid FBI investigation, Renzi steps down from 2 more panels |
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By Jackie Kucinich and Jonathan E. Kaplan
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Posted: 04/24/07 08:12 PM [ET] |
Following his decision to step down from the House Intelligence Committee after the FBI raided his business last week in Arizona, Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) is temporarily stepping down from the Resources and Financial Services Committees, according to a statement released late yesterday by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Boehner said: “I appreciate the decision Rick has made and know it was a difficult one … I look forward to seeing this matter resolved swiftly.”
Renzi told The Hill earlier yesterday that he was “looking at” the prospect of resigning.
Renzi informed Boehner about the FBI raid within an hour after it occurred and told him he would resign from the intelligence panel, said sources familiar with the discussions.
By contrast, Boehner was blindsided last week when he heard five days after the fact that reporters were investigating leads that the FBI had raided the home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), said sources familiar with the course of events.
Last Wednesday, Doolittle met with Boehner to tell the GOP leader that he would temporarily step down from the House Appropriations Committee, according to a Doolittle spokesman. But the aide did not know how Boehner learned about the FBI’s raid on Doolittle’s home.
“Once this issue was becoming public, he did have a conversation with Leader Boehner,” Doolittle’s spokesman said.
Conflicts of interest stemming from the appropriations process have ensnared lawmakers and aides in several widening scandals.
A slew of GOP appropriators have lost bids for reelection amid scandal: former Reps. John Sweeney (N.Y.), Don Sherwood (Pa.), jailed Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (Calif.) and Charles Taylor (N.C.). Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Texas) lost his seat last year as a result of a re-gerrymandered district.
Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), the former Speaker, also drew scrutiny when he turned a $2 million profit in 2005 from selling land just five and a half miles from a highway project for which he had secured an earmark.
House Republican leaders said last year that they would revoke members’ privileges and perks, such as committee assignments, if they were under investigation.
During Boehner’s campaign to become majority leader after the November 2006 election, he warned members in a “Dear Colleague” letter that the consequences for the ethically challenged would be swift and grave.
”[The] clear likelihood of serious transgressions will lead to suspension from important committees,” he wrote. “Guilt will lead to immediate and severe consequences.”
The decisions of Doolittle and Renzi to resign committee posts — coupled with the GOP leadership’s decision to assume that lawmakers are guilty until proven innocent — could signify that GOP leaders are holding their members to a new standard.
During last year’s midterm election, Republicans insisted that their members under investigation were innocent until proven guilty.
“Given the amount of time the GOP leadership team has spent making ethics a priority, it’s safe to say the decisions made by Doolittle and Renzi were no-brainers … The writing was already on the wall for them,” a GOP leadership aide said.
The aide added: “This is a crucial turning point for the party and proof that our leadership intends to make good on their promise to restore ethical integrity to the House.”
But the GOP aide noted that House leaders have not reprimanded other House members facing ethics problems because there has been no legal action taken against them. Those include California Republicans Jerry Lewis and Gary Miller, who have come under scrutiny for allegedly earmarking funds for a former lawmaker’s business and neglecting to report lucrative land deals, respectively.
The decision to crack down on wrongdoing is a far cry from a more confident House Republican Conference last year.
Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) famously received a standing ovation following his pledge to the House GOP to fight any federal indictment.
Ney later admitted he accepted thousands of dollars of gifts from lobbyists in exchange for legislative favors, and he formally confessed his wrongdoings in November.
For his part, Doolittle and his wife have been tied to imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. During the raid on April 13, FBI officials searched his home and confiscated three computers and two large filing cabinets that his wife, Julie, used to run her fundraising business, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions Inc. Sierra Dominion previously worked for Abramoff’s lobbying firm.
Doolittle told reporters last weekend that he would not resign and would run for reelection. He narrowly defeated Democrat Charlie Brown in 2006. |
