Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has called for an ethics investigation into Rep. Anthony Weiner’s actions in conducting online affairs with at least six women over the past three years.
Boehner hasn't ousted everyone with ethical problems, however. He did allow freshman Rep. David Rivera (Fla.) to maintain his position as he faced charges of personal and campaign corruption.
Pelosi's action may be for naught. Weiner has continued to maintain that he will not resign, and ethics experts are undecided over whether his behavior would rise to expulsion from the House.
"It's going to be a letter of admonition unless they find out more," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "I think they're going to be stretching. ... Every time a staffer picks up a phone to make weekend plans, you can't have that as a misuse of official resources."
Additionally, Sloan said it could be "risky" to go after general sexual inappropriateness since there have been allegations against other Members in the past.
Still, ethics lawyer Stefan Passantino noted that the ethics process is political, which could work against Weiner.
"Even if it's shown that there wasn't another violation, the mere discredit he's brought to the House is enough to be a violation," McKenna Long & Aldridge's Passantino said. "At the end of the day, the Members tend to look at the public mood and there is a long process gauging how much or how little the public will tolerate depending on who is controlling the House."
Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, arrives for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the investigation of the IRS' targeting of political groups. Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify and caused a protest from some committee members when she offered an opening statement and engaged in dialogue with members before invoking the right.
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