Hastings has one more assignment on House ethics committee

We know how much U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings enjoys serving on the House Ethics Committee, the no-win assignment he accepted back in 2005 from then-Speaker Dennis Hastert, the House Republican leader.

He playfully pointed out to this reporter more than a year ago that the assignment ends with this year. Hastings has often remarked that there’s no more difficult job than serving in judgment of one’s colleagues.

But not so fast.

According to Friday’s National Journal Online, it’s looking like the Pasco Republican  will have one last dirty job to do by Jan. 9, 2009, the last day of the 110th Congress: Sit in judgment of legendary House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

Hastings is part of a four-member ethics subpanel investigating possible personal financial ethics violations by Rangel while leading the powerful committee.

The subcommittee, which includes Reps. Gene Green, D-Texas, the acting chairman,  Bobby Scott, D-Virg. and Jo Bonner, R-Ala., promised Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that it would deliver its report on Rangel  by Jan. 3.

Pelosi, National Journal noted, issued an unusual statement on Thanksgiving eve, saying that the ethics subcommittee assured her the report would be completed on time and that she was “looking forward” to reviewing it.

The heat on Rangel was turned up earlier in the week when The New York Times reported that he helped preserve a tax loophole for an oil-drilling company while its CEO pledged $1 million to a college project in the congressman’s New York City district.

— Leah Beth Ward

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