In a letter to Pelosi Friday, Boehner asked for $1 million for professional investigative staff, consultants and other expenses. He also asked for an expansion of the probe to include “exceedingly controversial events in the House that occurred in close succession in early August,” such as the malfunction of the automatic voting system and alterations of the Congressional Record.Pelosi made clear to Boehner two days earlier that she was in no mood for swelling the investigation into mini Watergate hearings.
“There is no reason for this review to become protracted as the committee’s charge is limited to a very small number of matters,” Pelosi wrote in a terse letter to Boehner Wednesday.
Boehner, however, sees the matter differently.
“Madame Speaker, our votes in the House are cast on behalf of the American people — and public confidence in the integrity of the legislative actions in the House can only be restored by fully and aggressively investigating the circumstances surrounding each of these deeply disturbing events,” wrote Boehner. “Simply put, the Select Committee must follow the evidence wherever it leads — and it must have all the tools necessary to complete that critically important task.”
If he is planning on pushing this matter--and trying for "mini Watergate" proportions--could his placing of LaTourette and Hulshof on the committee be an attempt to strengthen a sense of legitimacy for its investigations?
UPDATE (9/10): Hulshof is definitely playing up his past support of ethics sanctions against Tom DeLay:
Hulshof said the situation reminded him of his tenure on the ethics committee, during which he and his Republican colleagues chose to admonish former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).
“I will tell you personally, being in the majority, that was a very difficult and painful process, to have to look at one of your own and to call to task, but to call it as you saw it,” Hulshof said.
