We've been keeping close tabs on the fired prosecutors story here at DailyKos, with a special focus on our two good friends who tried to strong-arm the long arm of the law, Sen. "Pajama Pete" Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson. As you may know, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (aka CREW) has filed ethics complaints against both alleged law-breaker lawmakers (Domenici | Wilson).
What you may not know is that the complaint against Wilson may wind up going nowhere. Paul Kiel at the indispensable TPM Muckraker explains:
[T]here's a funny thing about the ethics committee in the House. Unlike in the Senate, a complaint does not automatically trigger a preliminary investigation. For that to happen, a member of the House has to file a referral. And, because of an ongoing ethics truce between the parties, that is exceedingly rare.
[...]
But now The Los Angeles Times reports, "Congressional sources say that fellow lawmakers may file a complaint with the House Ethics Committee."
As Paul notes, though, CREW's deputy director isn't optimistic that this representative-to-be-named later will actually follow through. So why don't we give our elected officials a little bit of friendly encouragement? It only takes one member of Congress to file a complaint, after all.
So if you have a moment today, please give your representative a call, whether Dem or Republican, and politely ask him or her to request an ethics investigation into Rep. Wilson's conduct. Specifically, you want the ethics committee to look into whether Wilson "violated House rules by improperly contacting sitting U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico, regarding pending litigation." Of course, you don't have to use that exact phrasing, but I think the part in quotes gets straight to the nut of the story. (For more background info, consult CREW's formal complaint (PDF)).
Congress.org is probably the easiest way to get your member's contact information - just plug your ZIP code into this page. And if you get any feeback - whether positive, negative, or in pure politician-ese - please let us know in comments. Let's light a fire under the House, and remind our elected officials that we've never stopped caring about ethics - and we never will.