If you have solid tips, news or documents on potential ethical violations or abuses of power, we want to know. Send us your suggestions. 
Unfortunately I believe that we are limited in what we can focus on. I think that if we proceed with the partisan sideshow of prosecuting Bush admin. officials, healthcare will get lost in the brouhaha.
The Washington Post's permanent investigative unit was set up in 1982 under Bob Woodward.
Ethics Standards
David Harrington is the
new council chairman
in Prince George's County.
A Post editorial argues that the Prince George's County Democratic Party has hurt the county's reputation by choosing County Council Chairman David Harrington (D-Cheverly) to fill a vacant seat in the state Senate. An investigation by the Post's Cheryl W. Thompson reported in 2006 that Harrington had charged more than $27,000 to his county-issued credit card, including airline tickets for his son, gym memberships for himself and staff workers, a shirt and a haircut. Harrington said he repaid the charges but the county could not provide documentation. Federal and state investigations are looking into the matter.
Thompson and Ovetta Wiggins reported in 2006 that since County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) took office, 15 of his friends and political supporters had been awarded 51 county contracts totaling nearly $3.3 million. And Thompson, Mary Pat Flaherty and Rosalind S. Helderman reported last year that hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money designated for community projects in the county have gone to organizations directly connected to the people doling out the money or with ties to Johnson.
By The Editors |
February 7, 2008; 11:53 AM ET
D.C. Region
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Posted by: PG'er | February 8, 2008 3:58 PM
It's important to look at the bigger problem concerning ethics. There is NO nationwide effort to provide truly transparent oversight, or effective correction of failings, of ethics, so the abuses go unaddressed and are simply accepted as business as usual- in state, county and small town operations. This is not a party problem, it's a national horror. See New York's latest Ethics scandal- Tamanny Hall II -- www.ExposeCorruptCourts.blogspot.com
Posted by: Frank Brady | February 9, 2008 7:53 AM
This activity seems to be a way of life in every state and county in this union. Our central government drives the direction of this type of morality. The silence of the preachers is deafining when it comes to accusing the politicians of graft and corruption; but they are loud when it comes to voicing a preference for a politician.
Shortly (within 18 months), we will be in a deep depression with megainflation, rampant diseases with the government pushing religious warfare. I shudder at the cost of food.
All of this is the direct result of our politicians selling themselves to the highest bidder. In fact, most of the politicians have sold themselves so many times that their souls are worn out.
---The greatest fame and the most fortune
comes not from solving problems
but from fighting those problems
while spreading hate, hypocrisy, lies and fear in the aftermath of unresolved issues. ---
Posted by: Omen | February 25, 2008 8:22 AM
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To add insult to injury, let's not forget that Mr. Harrington also publicly endorsed Republican Michael Steele in Steele's US Senate race against Democrat Ben Cardin.
According to the County's Democratic Party bylaws, such an infraction gets you thrown of the Central Committee, but apparently the rules don't apply to Friends of Jack.