The House Ethics Committee gets to work (some what):

In a burst of activity that ended 16 months of inaction, the House ethics committee on Wednesday opened investigations of a Republican and a Democrat who are subjects of federal bribery inquiries. One lawmaker is connected to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, who had strong ties to Abramoff and accepted favors from him, will be investigated along with Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La. A former aide to Ney pleaded guilty last week, admitting he tried to corrupt the congressman. Two businessmen have pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson.

The committee also will conduct a preliminary inquiry into whether other lawmakers were involved in a bribery scandal that led to the conviction of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif.

In a separate announcement, the committee said it would have investigated overseas travel by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, but will not do so because the Texas Republican soon is leaving Congress. The committee does not have jurisdiction over lawmakers once they leave.

So since they won’t investigate Delay since he is leaving, does that make it more obvious he was the one shutting the committee down? I would say so. Interesting also how they choose to investigate one from each party. While I admit both need investigated there are more people who still have “questionable” activities (more so from the right than the left) which also merit investigation. Hopefully they will look into those also.