That sounds... pretty good. Talk costs nothing and so I think it's a good rhetorical move regardless of whether Dems actually implicate it.

I'm up for the hypothetical. Let's say the Dem honchos do as you suggest.

Why do you think insurance companies would be interested in threatening their policyholders? They're not insuring them against being fined for making illegal political contributions; there's no opprobrium attached in insuring corporations that do so; some of the insurance companies themselves may not be squeaky clean on the issue.

Wouldn't the reaction of corporations with fears of prosecution to give more generously to the party which was not threatening them?

Wouldn't the GOP have a field-day in accusing the Dems of proposing to suborn the Federal criminal process for partisan ends? Of suggesting that such a strategy might well be extended to other 'enemies of the Dems'?

Of course, the Dems, even if they won big in November, would have no control over the executive branch: they could only mount investigations, in what is bound to be a highly charged atmosphere of partisan warfare, which will inevitably detract from the credibility of the charges that they made.

Their threat would be that such investigations would force the hand of the FBI to act where they would not otherwise have done so.

Wouldn't the argument be that that threat is either ineffective or unethical?

And - how many of these target corporations have made contributions to Dem candidates and organizations?

Surely the Dems can't expect to threaten them and still get moolah from them?

Plus - are they sure that all the illegality related to contributions to GOP folks? What about contributions to Dems?

Whichever way you slice it, honest government is a terrible issue for Dems, because of its blowback potential (Jefferson, Mollohan, who knows else?) and because voters generally suspect that both parties are as bad as each other - and (a related point) that using ethics rules for partisan advantage is in itself unethical.

Even if I was convinced that no Dem (or at least, no Dem who will, or hopes to, be sitting in the 110th) was dirty, I'd not go that way.

Because that sort of convinced carries such a high risk of biting you in the ass.

I don't follow.  Won't they just double their funding of Wingers to keep the Dems out and buy them time to purge their files and open Swiss bank accounts?

I don't know if the Insurance angle will work.  But the idea, despite its dangers should be a good trial balloon.  There is one rule that all corporations live by: they will act in their own self interest.  

If they think that they will be the target of an investigation, Democrats with subpoena power, sitting for hours in front of the rolling cameras, giving non answers to embarrassing questions.  Will the currency of that company, its stock, go up or down... If nothing else, they will be very very careful to contribute evenly to both sides, it is in their own best self interest to do so.  

This also helps differentiate the Dems as the honest & ethical Party.  Yep, there are some bad eggs in that basket of Dems, and the leadership should let them hang and twist in the wind.  It adds to the message, unlike Republicans who decieve and protect their crooks and liars.

The key problem so far with blowback arises not with Jefferson but with Mollohan.

Whether or not the current Mollohan investigation goes anywhere, the accusation will be (as I've mentioned here before) that the reason that No Complaints Nancy so strenuously clung onto the ethics truce was that she suspected that Mollohan was dirty.

And, unlike the general run of GOP swiftboating, that is a genuinely fact-based question.

(To which I'd like to know the answer, too!)

Plus - who knows what will come out of the woodwork? Honesty is like pregnancy - you either are or you aren't.

But, then, a bit less dishonest isn't much of a slogan, is it?

Oh - and Pelosi's call on MtP for Jefferson to be investigated - putrid misdirection.

Why doesn't she file a complaint? Because she doesn't want an investigation - she wants Jefferson to go back to NO.

It's politics - no one has clean hands.

Take back America by a divestment attack of GOP money contributors and force the GOP congress to pass progressive legislation.

Join the campaign for progressive legislation http://buyblue.biz

Please do not buy products from these Republican contributors.

The Republican Party appears weak and vulnerable at the cash registers of the companies that give money to the Republican Party.

Stop buying products from these Republican contributors and tell others as well to stop. Thank you.

Dell Computers, Walmart, Wendy's, Outback Steak House, Dominos Pizza, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Eckerd, CVS and Walgreens, Curves for women health clubs, General Electric and Exxon/Mobil.

Send this set of demands to the speaker of the house, the senate majority leader and to each CEO of the corporations listed below.

Tell others to send this too.

A progressive agenda for America.

I demand that the Republican Party hold a press conference and accede to these demands. Until such a press conference happens and the legislation and/or actions gets passed I will boycott products from Republican contributors Dell Computers, Walmart, Wendy's, Outback Steak House, Dominos Pizza, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Eckerd, CVS and Walgreens, Curves for women health clubs, General Electric and Exxon/Mobil.

I demand that congress pass legislation ending the war in Iraq and withdraw the troops and arrange with the United Nations to replace US troops with UN troops to defend Iraq until The Iraqi army can defend Iraq.

I demand that the Republican party end their aggressive and hateful action to end a woman's right to choose abortion or not.

I demand that the Republican party end their aggressive and hateful action to harrass immigrants to this country.

I demand that the Congress of the United states and the president of the United States enact a law to increase the minimum wage to TEN dollars an hour and also to extend unemployment benefits to a year or more for all people whose unemployment benefits expired after 6 months even though they still seek work.

I demand that the Congress of the United States to not privatize social security benefits in any form including taking a percentage of the social security tax and placing it in private accounts. People can already create their own pensions with money after taxes in the private sector.

I demand that the congress make all of a person's earned income taxable for social security FICA tax purposes and remove the 88,000 dollar taxable income limit. This will make social security solvent for many years to come.

I demand the congress increase the payroll tax in order to make social security solvent as well.

I demand congress and the president enact a prescription drug benefit under Medicare Part B which covers 80 percent of medication cost, with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test and no coverage gaps, and no penalties for signing up in a succeeding year.

I demand congress repeal the faulty Medicare law HR 1 / S 1 passed by congress in Nov 2003.

I demand congress enact single payer universal health insurance for every citizen as minimum coverage.

I demand that congress and the president enact universal vote by mail throughout the 50 states of the United States of America with paper ballots easy to fill out and difficult to change or invalidate by Republican Party officials. This will prevent Republicans from vote suppression by skin color and political party which happened electronically and in person in the 2000 and 2004 elections.

I demand that congress and the president enact that civil servants on every state payroll keep track of voter registrations and vote counting of mail in votes in each precinct and not companies such as Choicepoint. We need to take the Republican Party out of the business of keeping track of voter registration and counting votes.

I demand that congress and the president ban the secretary of state in each of the 50 states from engaging in politics especially acting as a campaign official for a presidential campaign.

I demand congress enact legislation protecting private pensions from corporations deliberately declaring bankruptcy or ending pensions outright.

I really don't know which Democrats you think are going to be doing this.  I don't know any at all with the kind of courage required for this move.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

I'd not deny that there's a point here.

A flurry of complaints against GOP reps would look like a partisan campaign.

On the other side, though:

• Waiting for the lawyers, judges and juries is only of relevance to criminal matters - misdeeds that only infringe ethics rules can only be dealt with by ethics complaints.
     
• The partisan tag would not apply to complaints made by Dems against Dems (Jefferson, say); and if Dems were making complaints against both GOP and Dems, that would lessen the sting of the partisan charge.
     
• Joe Public might not appreciate the subtlety of waiting for the judges: he might wonder why the Dem leadership should take honest government as one of their six vision statement items, and be so unwilling to take action within their power.
     
• Because the ethics truce (try explaining that concept to Joe Public!) has been going on for years - why has the Dem leadership found not a single apparent breach of the rules worthy of a complaint? (I somehow think the GOP swifties have registered this fact!)

Very nice blog! Thanks!

I think maybe we need a draft John Murtha movement. He seems to be about the only one with any courage of his convictions and who speaks his truth. And he has the inner confidence to challenge the right where there there supposed strength lies.