GOP loses bid for ethics probe of Dem leaders
By LARRY MARGASAK and ANDREW MIGA
WASHINGTON – House Democrats on Thursday stopped a Republican bid to force an investigation of Democratic leaders aimed at determining whether they covered up sexual harassment allegations against ex-Rep. Eric Massa.
Even in failure, Republicans planted questions about when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi learned about allegations from Massa's employees that he sexually harassed male staff members. The freshman New York Democrat resigned Monday amid a slew of conflicting statements in which he confirmed and denied that he groped staff members and argued that none of the contact was sexual.
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The resolution introduced by Boehner would have given the ethics committee no choice about investigating what Democratic leaders knew about Massa. Instead, the House voted 402-1 to allow the ethics committee to decide its next step.
The committee has five members from each party, but a tie vote would kill any proposal to investigate Democratic leaders.
The committee ended its investigation of Massa on Wednesday because his resignation took his case out the committee's jurisdiction.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100311/ap_on_go_co/us_massa_republicans