On January 21, President Obama signed an Executive Order requiring ethics commitments for officials of his administration. As has been covered here, that commitment has already been compromised.
Interestingly however, the 'Ethics' section of the White House website went down that day, ostensibly to be updated to reflect the president's initiative. Six days later, that page is still down. Go there today and you find this message:
The ethics section is currently being revised to reflect President Obama's Executive Order concerning Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel, issued on January 21, 2009. Please check back soon.
Six days later and the website still hasn't been updated? This EO has been in the works for months. Furthermore, none of the other 'agenda' pages has been pulled down. According to Roll Call, this is what you found on the page before it went dark:
...the new White House Web site — launched just after President Barack Obama was inaugurated Tuesday — included a list of ethics reform proposals that would apply to Congress, including new earmark disclosure guidelines, requirements for public mark-ups of legislation and a call for a new Senate office to investigate ethics complaints. The last idea had been voted down in the Senate during the 110th Congress.
I wonder why it's down for such a long time -- at least in Internet terms -- and what will (or won't) be there when it goes back up.
Ethics are something that Democrats rarely address, unless it's to accuse Republicans of violating them.
There's my two cents.
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