After months of GOP ethics scandals, House Republicans chose Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) as the ranking member of a panel charged with investigating financial institutions — even as the FBI was looking into his land deals.

Representative Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, named Miller to the top GOP spot on the oversight and investigative subcommittee Jan. 9, according to a committee release. Watchdog groups have been raising red flags on several of Miller’s land deals since The Hill and other media outlets first scrutinized them early last year. Yesterday, a spokesman for the southern California city of Monrovia confirmed that agency officials had contacted the city about Miller’s land deals in the last two months.

Bachus’s office did not return calls for comment.

Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), said the leadership team would act “decisively” if a member were found to have violated the law or House rules.

“Mr. Boehner has made it abundantly clear that he and the new Republican leadership team in the House intend to hold members to the highest possible ethical standards,” Kennedy said. “If any Republican member is found to have violated ethics rules or broken laws, this leadership team and the Steering Committee will act accordingly and decisively.”

After the election, Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), who was under scrutiny for his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, decided not to run again for his conference secretary leadership position, and instead Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) ran and won that post. But Republicans decided not to oust Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), another member who is under FBI investigation, from the coveted top spot on the Appropriations panel.

In an interview earlier this year, Boehner said he believes Lewis is innocent until proven guilty, and that prevented him from toppling him from the top GOP spot on the spending panel.

But Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said Republicans are in the minority because they have operated under just that kind of policy for the past several years. The group filed a complaint about Miller’s land deals with the IRS last August.

“Until you can understand that your members have to do better than just avoid indictment, then you’re going to stay in the minority for many years to come,” Sloan said. “We’re gratified that there is an investigation. Miller has been clearly engaged in illegal activity and hopefully this will put an end to it.”

A spokesman for Taxpayers for Common Sense, Steve Ellis, said the group has been looking into Miller’s land deals over the last year and considers him to be “under an ethical cloud.”

“It’s questionable at best to put him in charge of the ranking-member slot on the committee,” Ellis said. “If more comes out from the FBI investigations, it may end up blowing up in the Republicans’ faces.”

Miller’s appointment to the ranking slot on the oversight and investigations panel plays into the Democrats’ hands. Already this year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has repeatedly named Miller as one of its top targets in 2008 and has made it clear that targeting ethically challenged members will be a major piece of their strategy this cycle.

“House Republicans seem to mistakenly believe that being investigated by the FBI qualifies you for an influential position on the oversight and investigative subcommittee,” DCCC spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said. “This kind of lack of leadership and accountability from the GOP is exactly why Americans voted for a change of direction in Congress.”

Monrovia spokesman Dick Singer yesterday acknowledged that a government agency had contacted city officials about Miller’s land deals “within the last couple of months,” but declined to offer any more specifics.

The San Bernardino Sun yesterday reported that the FBI had contacted officials and former officials from several cities in southern California about Miller’s land deals.

Miller spokesman Scott Toussaint said the FBI had not contacted Miller or his staff. Miller has consistently denied any wrongdoing and yesterday lashed out at the press for conducting what he called a “smear” campaign against him.

“Congressman Miller is tired of all the rumor and innuendo that has been in the press regarding his past real estate transactions,” Miller said in a written statement.

In order to “stop this smear once and for all,” Miller said he handed over “relevant documents” to the ethics committee late last year and asked it to render an opinion.

“If he is contacted, he intends to cooperate fully because he has nothing to hide,” the statement said.

Among various questionable land deals, The Hill first reported late last year that Monrovia city officials had tried to secure a federal earmark to help purchase a large swath of land to create a wilderness preserve in the nearby foothills, 165 acres of which Miller owned. The city’s efforts were unsuccessful and it instead passed a tax increase and secured California state grant money to pay for the land. Miller ended up making nearly $10 million on the deal.

In August, CREW filed a complaint with the IRS alleging that Miller failed to report or pay capital-gains tax on the sale of the land to Monrovia. The Los Angeles Times reported that Miller claimed that the city had exercised eminent domain, which would lighten his tax load; but the city denied doing so.