Ethics.

       In a move to better serve Congress and provide Congress with better control over any and all complaints against any member of the House of Representatives, the Republican Caucus voted, in secret, to remove the independence from the Independent Ethics Office, according to a New York times report. What it means is that the IEO which had its own investigators who were charged with following up on any complaints or media accusations of wrong doing. The full committee would then turn their findings over to the House Ethics Committee for action.
       Since the Republicans are in the majority, there is no reason to except any change when the full House votes on it. What it means is that now the Independent Ethics Office will have no authority to pick on any member of the house unless the House gives them the OK.
       So why did this happen? Some members of the House complained that the investigators were too aggressive in their investigations. My guess is that the investigators asked questions that some members of the House found to be uncomfortable. You know, like if you were doing something unethical, you certainly wouldn't want some nosey investigator poking around asking questions about that activity, now would you.
       Now you would suppose that the House Ethics Committee will handle any ethics questions that come up from now on, except that the HEC doesn't actually care  a whole heck of a lot. See, you have to remember that the House Ethics Committee is answerable to the members of the house. In other words if a complaint comes in about a Representative, likely that Representative will find fault with that complaint and the HEC will likely pitch the complaint into the circular file, waste basket.
       What this all means is that you can kiss ethics in our House of Representatives goodbye. They've never been high on ethics anyway, so they won't miss it. But for us, ethics by our representation in Congress is somewhat important.