AP - "Democratic Leader Asks for Ethics Probe"

The House Democratic leader Thursday asked for an investigation of alleged threatening remarks made to the ethics committee chairman by GOP lawmakers.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert, asked the House ethics committee to investigate the comments allegedly made to its chairman, Joel Hefley, R-Colo. The comments apparently followed release of a report last week that criticized the conduct of Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

The Capitol newspaper The Hill quoted Hefley as saying: "I've been attacked; I've been threatened" by Republican lawmakers. The newspaper did not say who made the remarks, but Hefley separately told reporters he was not threatened by GOP leaders.

Pelosi wrote the speaker, "To uphold the integrity of the ethics process, I ask you to join with me in asking the committee to empanel an investigative subcommittee to immediately investigate Mr. Hefley's allegation."

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The Republicans are giving the Democrats a great message to run with: ethics. I am not suggesting John Kerry switch his message at this time, as it is much to late in the campaign season to do so. Nevertheless, I'd like to hear Democratic candidates around the nation stressing ethics as the main reason why it's time to have a Democratic Congress. This is the primary reason why the Democrats were thrown out of the House in 1994 (House bank overdrafts meant much more than the "Contract With America"). I don't know that the Dems can retake the House this year, but the only way for them to do it is to have a national referrendum on Republican leadership of the Congress, which has been sorely lacking. Who knows... maybe JK will have a Democratic House and Senate when he is swarn in in January.