Watchdog Asks Senate Ethics Panel For Vitter Inquiry
by Elana Schor (excerpt)

THE HILL

A liberal-leaning watchdog group filed an ethics complaint against Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on Thursday, raising the prospect of an ethics committee inquiry into the conservative freshman’s entanglement with an alleged prostitution ring.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Senate ethics committee to investigate whether Vitter’s contacts with the escort service of the so-called “D.C. Madam” amount to “improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate,” in the parlance of the upper chamber’s ethics manual.

“Whether or not Sen. Vitter is ultimately adjudicated to have broken any criminal laws, the Senate may still discipline him for improper conduct as it has done for others in the past,” CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan, a former assistant U.S. attorney and Democratic aide, wrote in the complaint.

Senate rules, unlike those in the House, allow outside groups to file ethics complaints against members. CREW registered a win earlier this year when its ethics complaint against Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) regarding his involvement in the U.S. attorneys scandal sparked a preliminary inquiry from the ethics panel.