| Texas Republican Michael McCaul, the ranking member overseeing the ethics inquiry of Representative Charles Rangel of New York, failed to disclose stock transactions valued at millions of dollars on his annual financial report dating back to 2008.
From CQ Roll Call:
A Roll Call analysis of McCaul's annual reports found the Texas Republican did not fully detail the 2008 sale of Clear Channel stocks owned by his spouse, including the date of the transaction.
McCaul spokesman Mike Rosen said Friday that the lawmaker believes he has filed accurate forms. But after his office reviewed the version of the story that appears in Monday's newspaper, McCaul released a statement Sunday that acknowledged the forms were wrong but blamed the errors on the accounting firm that prepares his report.
Amazing isn't it? Whenever these elected officials get caught having done something questionably unethical it is always someone else's fault and never their own. Congressman McCaul and his staff forget to mention of course that members of congress are required to certify their disclosure statements by signature. One would think that if you were going to put a signature to ethics forms that you would want to ensure that your forms are 100% accurate.
Of course, part of the reason Republican McCaul, the sixth richest individual in congress, might have wanted to keep his stock disclosure a bit hush-hush was because in 2009-2010 Clear Channel Media Holdings donated almost $35,000 dollars toward McCaul's congressional campaign coffers. Oh my, that's not good.
Roll Call also had this fascinating tidbit about McCaul:
The Texas lawmaker, who will rank sixth on Roll Call's upcoming annual survey of the richest Members of Congress with a minimum net worth of $73.75 million, has seen his fortunes sextuple since he filed his first financial disclosure report, which was for the 2004 calendar year.
So the Ranking Republican in Charlie Rangel's ethics inquisition has questionable ethics issues of his own. At a minimum McCaul should recuse himself from the investigation in light of this new information. Republican leaders should demand the same. |
