Background: back over Thanksgiving weekend John Conyers III (the son of Rep. John Conyers) reported a theft of computers and concert tickets from the car that he was using.  The problem?  John Conyers III was using the car unlawfully: it was leased to his father’s Congressional office as an official vehicle, and Conyers was not using it in an official capacity.  And it wasn’t anything like an one-time event, either: John Conyers III also got a speeding ticket on the car back in September.  The behavior was so egregious that Rep. Conyers isn’t even trying to fight it: he’s just swiftly reimbursing the government as comprehensively as possible before the 112th Congress gets sworn in.

None of this is the true scandal.  The true scandal is that we’re only hearing about this now.  Rep. Conyers – who is, by the way, still the JUDICIARY CHAIR – has a history of abusing official resources.  His wife is in jail for bribery.  There is thus zero excuse for the media not to jump on this with both feet… and if the man had an R after his name, they would have.  Then again, if Rep. Conyers had had an R after his name the media would have destroyed him years ago.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I think that the new Ethics Committee leadership should look into this – and that they should not give this the same wrist slap in 2011 that their Democratic counterparts did in 2007.  I am tired of Democratic politicians thinking that they can get a pass on not even having to care about propriety; I am even more tired of them having any practical justification for thinking that way.