Carol M. Morrissey has been the
Legislative Specialist for the Washington, D. C. office of Chicago's
Sidley & Austin for 11 years. She is a lawyer and legislative
expert who has also authored a Congressional update column for the
last 4 years.
On January 21, the House of
Representatives voted 395-28 to reprimand and fine Newt Gingrich, the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, an action unprecedented in
the 208 year history of the House (see
http://www.c-span.org
for the roll call vote on sanctions). Rep Nancy Johnson (R-CT), the
chair of the Ethics Committee, announced that the sanctions were being
levied for bringing "discredit" upon the Institution of the
House of Representatives, for not obtaining the necessary legal advice
on the tax issues involved and for providing information to the Ethics
Committee without first ascertaining that it was "accurate in
every respect."
The Hearing
The above penalty was finalized by a
7 to 1 vote after the almost 6 hour hearing the Ethics Committee held
on January 17. At the hearing, the special counsel to the Committee,
James M. Cole, presented the findings of his year long investigation
and Rep. Gingrich's attorneys were given the opportunity to defend
their client against any and all charges. (The text of the report can
be found at
http://www.house.gov/demcaucus/report.htm
and at
http://www.c-span.org) Mr.
Cole contended (and the Committee originally agreed to the former)
that Mr. Gingrich knew or should have known that the information he
submitted to the Committee was misleading and that he violated tax law
by using a tax-exempt organization (GOPAC) to engage in political
activities.
The attorneys for Mr. Gingrich, J.
Randolph Evans and Ed Bethune (a former Representative), claimed that
the actions of many tax-exempt organizations are tainted with
political overtones, naming the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood as
prime examples. Additionally, the misleading documents which had been
submitted to the Committee were prepared by Mr. Gingrich's former
attorney, Jan Baran. Although the documents were approved and signed
by Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Baran is responsible for the inaccuracies they
contain. His attorneys also pointed out that not only did the Speaker
admit his guilt back in December to having provided inaccurate
information to the Committee, (see article at
http://www.wbc.net/news/stories/hl_newt12-23-96.htm)
but he apologized on January 7 (after being re-elected to the position
of the Speaker of the House) to the American public and the Members
for his actions.
The Bargain
The Committee was eventually swayed
by the fact that Mr. Gingrich recognized the seriousness of the
charges and that he had earlier admitted his guilt as to the
misleading documents. Therefore, in what amounted to a plea bargain,
the charge against Mr. Gingrich was altered to eliminate the element
of intent. This placed the Committee on much firmer ground concerning
House Rule 43, which states that, "a Member .....shall conduct
himself at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the
House of Representatives." (see GPO Access for Jefferson's
Manual, which contains the text of the House Rules) Therefore,
according to the Committee, Speaker Gingrich did bring discredit to
the House of Representatives, but he did not do so deliberately. The
Committee did not make a decision concerning whether a tax law
violation took place when GOPAC was used to finance a college course
and town meetings with a partisan political message, but the
appropriate information has been handed over to the Internal Revenue
Service for investigation.
Status Quo
The Committee invested nearly two
years into ethics complaints against Newt Gingrich (the first ethics
complaint involving GOPAC was filed in June of 1994 by Bob Terrell, a
Republican primary challenger). Mr. Cole states in his report that
GOPAC, the televised college course and the televised town meetings
were instrumental in fueling the 1994 Republican takeover of the House
of Representatives, in effect, in changing the course of history.
There is no doubt that American politics has been irrevocably altered
by the November 1994 election, or as some would say, "realigned"
(see the Charles Cook commentary in the Jan. 22, 1997 issue of
Roll
Call, "Politics as Unusual: Realignment Tips Balance of Power").
However, power gained is not so willingly relinquished and therefore
the status quo remains. (Note: the audio of the Ethics Investigations
News Conferences can be found at
http://www.c-span.org/ethics.htm)
