The Democratic leadership is stepping up efforts to emphasize an abuse-of-power’ message against Republicans. That’s a reason the Dem House leadership Tuesday unveiled an ethics package.

Dems continue to try to capitalize on the ethical woes facing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and the GOP bid to erode Dem power to block judicial nominees. The latest Dem wrinkle in the strategy is to make ethics a women’s issue.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) got the ball rolling on this Tuesday when she talked about new ethics proposals at a press conference with Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.).
Pelosi said that, when it comes to ethics, “my women members of Congress have been very, very interested.

“The Democratic women have had a great deal of enthusiasm for upholding high ethical standards. Some of them think that the women of the House will clean the House, will clean house here.’’ I can live without that cleaning-lady imagery, but I can see where Pelosi is going with this. I think I’ll call it the Dems’ pitch for “ethics moms.’’

Both Democrats and Republicans need to disclose more, eliminate special-interest influence and at least reveal the role lobbyists play in raising money for federal campaigns.

Last Friday, Pelosi was in Chicago at a funder sponsored by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America to benefit the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, chaired by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.).

Dems are calculating that ethics issues resonate specially with females. When she was talking about women cleaning house, Pelosi was telegraphing yesterday’s appeal aimed at women. A group of Dem women from the House and Senate was planning a press conference (I am writing this before it happened) to talk about GOP abuse of power, which under their definition takes in everything from ethics to the threat of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to trigger the “nuclear option’’ to eliminate the Democrats’ ability to filibuster judicial nominees.

Footnote: Emanuel, who joined with Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) to sponsor related ethics proposals, will face a test of his effectiveness as a legislator in advancing the package of much-needed changes. Emanuel, in taking over the DCCC, promised to hit GOPers over ethics issues.

Watch for House Administration Committee Chief Bob Ney (R-Ohio), whose panel handles ethics, to want to deal with Meehan rather than Emanuel, whom Ney regards as an opportunist on this one. Even if Emanuel takes his name off the bill — he offered to do so if it would help get it passed — Republicans will still see his fingerprints on it.

Hastert and Arnold. Next Monday, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) helps out California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) when he attends a funder in Chicago for the gov’s “California Recovery Team.’’

Schwarzenegger’s team is the campaign-like organization he formed to promote his package of initiatives and to defeat various propositions in California balloting.

Schwarzenegger is pushing a proposal that may yield more Golden State GOP seats, called the Voter Empowerment Act. If enacted, it would send remapping duties from the Legislature to a panel of three retired judges to draw congressional and legislative districts.

Last Monday, Hastert headed to Frederick, Md., for a lunch funder to benefit Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.). Catching up … in recent weeks, Hastert keynoted D.C. funders for GOP Reps. Rodney Alexander (La.); Ralph Hall (Texas); Dave Reichert (Wash.) and Randy Kuhl (N.Y.).

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it