members of congress have gotten back to us, congressman mike doyle and senator tom coburn. and while the other members of congress might want to ignore our questions about this, they should probably know that stitch wepts in their own states and districts are starting to take notice. here s a sampling of headlines just from today. brownback named in complaint about c-street house. ethics complaint filed against c-street. names demint. john ensign faces ethics complaint over apartment rent rate. this one ethics watchdog files complaint against stupak. complaint against watch and schuller over c-street rent. these members of congress can feel free to dodge our questions as long as they want to, but it may not be just us asking these questions for too much longer. huh? where do gummy bears hide? under the seat. look! yeah! [ telephone rings ]
justice department but critics say nothing really has changed on the ground. case by case, so far, the obama justice department has taken the same position as the bush justice department did on these cases. all right. michael isikoff of newsweek , thank you very much. senior investigative reporter. thank you. a watch dog group has some questions for the conservative lawmakers who live in washington s so-called c street house. the organization citizens for responsible and ethics in washington filed complaints today claiming that lawmakers may have violated ethics rules for paying below market rates for rent. the rent was reportedly only $950 a month. residents have included senator sam brownback, tom coburn and jim demint among others. the c street house is affiliated with the highly secretive religious group known as the fellowship. the history channel is putting a new face on a centuries old question. what did jesus christ really look like? a new special follows a team of
expulsi expulsion. at least expect to see congressman stupak disciplined and told to pay back all the extra money probably to the u.s. treasury. in terms of people who have been at c street who lived there who would potentially be subject to an ethics inquiry if one were to happen we know congressman stupak lived there for years. a lot of members of congress at times acknowledged living there and at times not. is there a means by which we could require members of congress to acknowledge where they lived and when or is that considered private information that s not available for inquiry rei like this? sadly, you and i can t ask for it but the house and senate ethics committee can. if we go to the committee and say, these are the members who lived there over time, mike doyle, john ensign from the senate, jim demint. if we ask the ethics committee to investigate whether the
part of lowering costs and expanding coverage. it s a separate issue he s trying to tack onto this. but that separate issue is part of congressman stupak s quest for fame. with that quest for fame came scrutiny of things like his living arrangements at the c street house which is owned by the secretive religious group called the family. he did address ethics issues involves reduced rate at the house saying, quote, people are threatening ethics complaints on me. on the left, they re really stepping it up. every day from rachel maddow to the daily coast it keeps coming. does it bother me? sure. does it change my position, no. whether or not it bothers congressman stupak or changes his position, the questions about his living arrangements at c street remain open only because he won t answer them. when a congressman pays only $600 a month to live in a 12-bedroom townhouse by the
there is something called the house gift ban preventing members of congress from accepting any kind of gift. this applies to members of the house and senate and taking rent from somebody violates the gift ban. i looked today at what rent goes for on the hill and in comparable houses nearby the rent would be $1,000 a month. there is conversation that mr. stupak got room and board and maid service. we called a capitol hill hotel nearby and found their rooms go between $2700 and $7,000 a month depending on the month. that s just a standard room. clearly, bart stupak and the other members of congress who lived at the c street house have been given some kind of gift when they live at the house and they are not paying full rent. we should make it clear congressman stupak won t tell us how much he paid in rent, to whom he paid rent nor if he was aware he was getting a subsidy.