Lawmaker Says Most Want to Disband Ethics Office

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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January 31, 2011

Lawmaker Says Most Want to Disband Ethics Office

House Ethics committee Chairman Jo Bonner (R-AL) told the Mobile Press-Register that the "vast majority" of House members "privately wish to end the Office of Congressional Ethics, a controversial independent watchdog agency put in place by House Democrats in 2008 to monitor Congress."

But Bonner notes "political realities" prevented Republicans from disbanding the office when they took power.

Said Bonner: "If he had disbanded OCE, he would have instantly become the target of criticism, from both the far left and the far right, that he was not serious when he said that we were going to have zero tolerance on ethical violations."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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January 31, 2011