Eth-Icks

Congress is struggling with our country's finances, but that doesn't meant they don't have other fish to fry. Irons in the fire. Axes to grind. Rugs to vacuum. There's plenty of work yet to be done. Not the least of which is to keep an eye on the various peccadilloes of its members. A body that employs both a Boehner and, until recently, a Weiner should expect distractions of this sort on a regular basis. That's what ethics panels are for, after all. While we scurry about trying to figure out how to avoid defaulting on our debts, it is important to keep their last names from becoming euphemisms for something illicit.
Nancy Pelosi wants to keep the distractions generated by the most recent allegations of misconduct by a member of the House of Representatives to a minimum. You may remember a few months ago, when Oregon's David Wu was being called out for being caught in his tiger suit. This paled, if briefly, by comparison to New York's Chris Lee who jumped out in front of the aforementioned Weiner to pioneer the shirtless look for the "Hunks Of Capitol Hill" calendar. Tiger suit? Big deal. Call us when you show up in a pair of chaps and a cowboy hat.
Now the Oregonian newspaper has quoted sources who said a young woman left voicemail at Wu's Portland office earlier this year accusing him of an unwanted sexual encounter three weeks after last year's election. The woman decided not to press changes because there were no witnesses and it would have been her word against Wu's. Why bother? He has won seven terms. In 2004, he won despite acknowledging a decades-old college incident in which he tried to force a former girlfriend to have sex.That sort of thing doesn't seem like as big a deal as creating jobs, rebuilding the infrastructure, and raising the debt ceiling. And getting a real sweet price on his next costume rental. Come to think of it, maybe a guy like him might look forward to an upcoming probe. Or he could simply resign and be grateful that the current climate allows him to slink quietly away in the night. Wu!