The Senate Un"Ethics" Committee

I have to say, I was so RELIEVED to see that the Senate Ethics Committee has decided that Senator's Dodd and Conrad did nothing wrong when they took loans from Countrywide at a rate unavailable to the average citizen (or even above average or exceptional citizen, for that matter).

I am assuming the Ethics Committee and its Chair, Senator Barbara Boxer, must be confused about the nature of their responsibility within their committee, so let me clear it up for them:

NEWS FLASH: Your committee is called the "Ethics" Committee, not the "Legality" Committee. Your job is to investigate ethical breaches, not violations of the law. While something may be technically "legal" it may still be "unethical" (like, for example, when the Chairs of the Senate Banking and Budget Committees, Senators Dodd and Conrad, respectively, accept special favors from the very industry that their committees oversee).

For Senator Boxer, and her Committee, the dictionary defines the two terms as such:

illegal:: not according to or authorized by law : unlawful, illicit
unethical: not conforming to approved standards of social or professional behavior

Now I realize, Senator Boxer, that you and your esteemed colleagues are really busy right now not reading the health care reform bill that you will be voting on, so let me try to save you some time by spelling this out in very simple terms. What Senators Dodd and Conrad did was possibly not illegal, but it was unquestionably wrong. Surely, even you can see through your hyper-partisan glasses how their behavior constitutes a conflict of interest? Just imagine, for a second, that instead of Dodd and Conrad with the D for Democrat next to their name, the offending parties were Senators McConnell and Kyl, with the R for Republican next to their name. Would your so-called "Ethics" Committee be so quick to dismiss the issue? I am quite confident that it would not. In fact, I believe you would pursue the matter with dogged determination until they were sanctioned in some way, rightfully so. But Ethics, like Justice, is supposed to be blind. Right is right and wrong is wrong... ethical is ethical and unethical is unethical, regardless of race, religion, gender, or political party affiliation.