In busy news week, New York’s governor says he won’t resign despite controversy over allegations of abuse of office; there’s speculation that embattled Rep. Charles Rangel may not seek reelection; Western New York congressman will resign rather than face ethics probe; ethics missing from debate on economic crisis, according to Reuters analysis; watchdog groups weigh on the current state of congressional ethics

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Ethical angles were components of the top news from U.S. politics last week. Among the stories:

• Embattled New York governor David Paterson said he has no intention of resigning and vowed to clear his name while remaining in office. ABC News reports that Paterson’s declaration came on the same day that a poll indicated that less than half of New Yorkers say he should finish out his term. Paterson is facing two ethics scandals: charges that he helped cover up a domestic violence claim involving one of his aides as well as allegations that he lied about accepting free World Series tickets.

• Supporters are urging New York congressman Charles Rangel to seek re-election this fall, reports the New York Daily News, but many are not sure that Rangel, who was forced to give up his high-profile Ways and Means Committee chairmanship because of an ethics scandal, will be content to return as a rank-and-file member of Congress. Among Rangel’s other challenges, reports the News, is that he is paying several lawyers to defend him from the ethics charges, and his fundraising clout has been diminished since losing his chairmanship.

• Western New York freshman Rep. Eric Massa, under pressure from other House Democrats, last week announced his pending resignation in the wake of a sexual harassment accusation from a staffer. Massa cited a reoccurrence of cancer as the reason for his resignation, but acknowledged that an ethics investigation also is part of the cause, reports TIME magazine. Massa denies the harassment claim, saying instead that his “salty language” may have offended the staffer.

• The debate over the world economic crisis seems to be overlooking the ethical angle, according to an analysis from the Reuters news agency. Politicians seem unable to come up with a plan to reflect voters’ moral unease, claims a group that is, according to the Reuters report, trying to jumpstart an ethics debate. “People have strong emotions about right and wrong — that sense of justice is hard-wired into the way we view the world,” says Madeleine Bunting, one of three founders of the Citizen Ethics Network, which launched in London last week. “Our politics have lost the capacity to connect with that kind of emotion…. Politics has become very technocratic and managerial, all about who’s going to deliver more economic growth.” Political leaders in Britain were quick to endorse the project, with Conservative opposition leader David Cameron commenting that politicians have shied away from moral questions for “fear of seeming judgmental,” noting that it is “vital we find a way of talking about these issues without people feeling preached at.”

• Several watchdog groups are calling for a reworking of congressional ethics rules after a House ethics panel cleared more than a dozen lawmakers in two separate investigations, according to a report from USA Today. Some of the controversy centers on the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which vets complaints before sending them on to the House Ethics Committee. Critics say the independent office is ineffective and lacks subpoena power. And, say watchdog group spokesmen interviewed by the paper, when complaints do reach the full ethics committee, they often are dismissed. “It is stunning to us that the ethics committee is blatantly closing cases when the OCE has raised the red flag,” Mary Boyle of Common Cause told USA Today. Boyle’s remarks came after the ethics committee cleared seven lawmakers of wrongdoing in an investigation of their relationship with a now-defunct lobbying group, according to the report.
• Reacting to the current spate of scandals in congressional politics, House speaker Nancy Pelosi defended the Democratic Party’s record on ethics and said she has taken strong steps to clean up the House of Representatives, according to a report from McClatchy Newspapers. McClatchy’s William Douglas and David Lightman write: “Watchdog groups say, however, that Pelosi’s actions have fallen woefully short of House Democrats’ promise to ‘drain the swamp’ of unethical behavior, a vow they emphasized when they won control of the House in 2006 after Republican corruption scandals centered on disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Now Republicans see an important campaign issue emerging for November’s congressional elections.”

Sources: ABC News, Mar. 5 — Time, Mar. 5 — New York Daily News, Mar. 5 — Reuters, Mar. 4 — USA Today, Mar. 4 — McClatchy, Mar. 4.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Mar. 1 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 1 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 19 — Related Newsline story, Jan. 11 — Related Newsline Commentary, Oct. 12, 2009.