Robert Hune-Kalter - Talk Radio News Service
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) previously promised one of the most ethical Houses in years. Today, she commended the House Ethics committee hours before its hearing to possibly lay charges against embattled Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.).
“What we did when we came in was to implement the toughest ethics reform in a generation,” said Pelosi during her weekly briefing with reporters. “Are there going to be individual issues to be dealt with? Yes. I never said that there wouldn’t be, but we would have a process to deal with it.
Reporters asked the Speaker if today’s hearing at all undermined a 2006 statement she made about “draining the swamp,” referring to her pledge to cleanse the lower chamber of unethical conduct.
“Drain the swamp we did, because this was a terrible place,” she said. “We have made a tremendous difference and I take great pride in that.”