Posted December 4, 2007 by Meredith McGehee

Ensign’s Electronic Filing Obstruction

Senator John Ensign’s (R-NV) continual obstruction of timely disclosure of Senate campaign finance reports through electronic filing is the accountable government equivalent of standing in the school house door.

In a letter to Senate Rules Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) yesterday refusing to withdraw his unrelated logjam amendment, Sen. Ensign reveals contempt for the American people and their right to timely, accurate information about who is at the table in the pay-to-play game in Washington.  This move also underlines his complete disconnect from the public disgust with congressional corruption that played such a key role in the 2006 election.  Talk about being out of touch with reality.

In his attempt to justify his obstructionist tactics, Senator Ensign actually applauds the “very formal, rigorous requirements to file complaints,” in the House – a move so laughable as make one wonder if he is being ironic on purpose.  Has he forgotten that there is a bipartisan Task Force in the House to fix an ethics process that even they recognize as broken and discredited?

The process so admired by Sen. Ensign turned a blind eye to Rep. Mark Foley’s stalking of congressional interns and to misdeeds by Members and staffers that have led to federal prison sentences.  The longstanding “ethics truce” and the barring of outside complaints in the House only encouraged abuses by Members and fed public disgust.  The Junior Senator from Nevada’s admiration for an ethics committee even more dysfunctional than the Senate’s – which itself has yet to do anything about startling accusations and even admissions of corruption and misconduct involving airport bathrooms, suspicious house additions and the use of escort services – is simply mystifying. 

In order to hold up this electronic disclosure bill, which has broad bipartisan support, Sen. Ensign is demanding full donor disclosure by any organization seeking to file an ethics complaint.  He is positioning himself and his colleagues as if they are the victims who must be protected from the unruly crowd.  He is apparently unwilling to let the merits of any complaint be the deciding factor.  And he seems to forget that he is the one in power, the one who chose to run for office and the one who is cashing a paycheck and making decisions about all of our lives – all at the courtesy of the American taxpayer. 

We hope that his colleagues in the Senate, and more importantly the public, recognize Sen. Ensign’s actions as nothing more than an attempt to continue holding a veil over last-minute campaign shenanigans that Congress has ridden to sadly low approval ratings and another example of the demagoguery that too often passes for real debate in Washington.