Senior Democrat on House ethics committee steps down

WASHINGTON -- The top Democrat on the House ethics committee agreed Friday to leave the panel to defend his financial conduct and ease the political burden on a party that has made Republican corruption a major campaign theme.

Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., decided on his own to step down at least temporarily, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said. His presence on the committee, while under an ethics cloud, would have undermined Democratic accusations that majority Republicans allow a "culture of corruption" in Congress.

Republicans immediately went on the attack despite the decision by Mollohan, who has denied any wrongdoing.

"Congressman Mollohan and the Democrats have repeatedly used the ethics committee to play politics while blocking the committee from functioning," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Mollohan will be replaced by Rep. Howard Berman of California, a former ranking Democrat on the House's only evenly divided panel of 10 members.

Berman worked well with Republicans when he served on the committee, and he said he won't stay long if the panel can't break through a 16-month partisan deadlock that has prevented the launching of any new investigations.

Democrats have demanded probes of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and others who were given trips, fundraisers, meals and skybox seats by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Wall Street Journal reported two weeks ago that Mollohan steered millions of dollars to not-for-profit groups in his district -- with much of the money going to organizations run by people who contribute to his campaigns.

Also, a conservative ethics watchdog group, the National Legal and Policy Center, filed a complaint with federal prosecutors this year questioning whether Mollohan correctly reported his assets on financial disclosure forms.

Mollohan has denied any wrongdoing in the appropriations and said his financial disclosures were accurate. He attributed a large increase in assets to a boost in property values.

As late as Thursday, Mollohan was stubbornly refusing to leave. A Democratic official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, said Pelosi told Mollohan he needed to step down for the good of the party. "It was not anything she had to get tough about," the official said.

Pelosi said in a statement: "The allegations against Congressman Mollohan originate from the National Legal and Policy Center, which engages in highly partisan attacks on Democrats. The attacks are an attempt to deflect attention from the long list of Republican criminal investigations, indictments, plea agreements and resignations which have resulted from the reported long-term and extensive criminal enterprise run out of House Republican leadership offices."

Using a phrase that has become a Democratic refrain, Pelosi said, "The Republican culture of corruption has been ignored by the ethics committee for a year and a half following the decision of the Republican leadership to fire their own chairman and committee members for doing their job."

Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, called for Mollohan to amend his financial disclosure reports because "his explanations to date are inconsistent with his own public records."

While Mollohan and committee chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., had 16 months of friction, Berman had a good working relationship with former ethics chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo.

Berman made it clear that he was reluctant to return to the committee, an assignment most lawmakers view as a thankless job. He called his return "an honor I could have done without."

Acknowledging the committee's long stalemate, Berman said in a statement, "If every vote is cast along party lines for partisan political advantage, then the result of every vote is a tie, which stops the committee in its tracks."

Berman said the committee "should be neither a member protection agency, nor a forum for deciding partisan and ideological battles. If the committee chooses to pursue either option, then expect my tenure to be even briefer than it is intended to be "

Hefley sought to have his term as chairman extended at the start of 2005, but he and two other Republicans were forced off the 10-member committee after having voted to admonish DeLay.

Since the beginning of last year, Mollohan and Hastings fought over internal rules and staffing, and in a recent meeting discussed -- but were unable to agree -- on launching any new investigations.

Hastings said nothing about Mollohan's departure but praised Berman and predicted an end to the bickering.

"We have worked together before and I'm looking forward to working with him again. I'm confident that now we'll finally be able to get the ethics committee moving," he said.