ABC NEWS: CONGRESSIONAL ETHICS PANELS YIELD LITTLE PUNISHMENT. You don’t say. Excerpt:

It may have seemed brash when Rep. Charlie Rangel called for the House ethics committee to investigate questions about his apartment deals, taxes and an alleged quid-pro-quo donation for earmark scheme late last year. But if history is any guide, there’s little reason for Rangel to worry. Why? Because congressional ethics committees rarely discipline members of Congress.

“The ethics committees never do anything,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Ethics in Washington. “When is there anyone’s conduct that they actually think is a problem?”

This reality contrasts with the rhetoric of congressional Democrats like Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who pledged to “drain the swamp” of corruption when she took over the leadership more than two years ago.

Indeed.