Wisconsin Congressman not surprised GOP pulled plan to gut government watchdog

Public flooded offices with phone calls after word got out about secret Rep. meeting.

A Wisconsin Congressman says he’s not surprised Republicans pulled a plan to eliminate the independence from a congressional watchdog. 

La Crosse Congressman Ron Kind says once word got out that the GOP wanted to put itself in charge of the Office of Congressional Ethics, the whole issue was donesville.

“First of all, it was politically tone def,” Kind said. “They did not read (what) I just experienced back home.”

Congressional republicans pulled the proposal during an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon, after holding a secret meeting the night before that had the public erupting the next morning.

Thousands of phone calls flooded the offices of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Twitter erupted with state representative’s phone numbers.

“We have got just a tremendous number of calls to our office here and district offices concerned about this,” Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) said, according to Bloomberg News. 

That led president-elect Donald Trump to voice is opinion on Twitter, criticizing, not the decision, but the timing.

With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017

……..may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017

Kind said he’s not suprised that the proposal to gut the office was pulled.

“Trying to do away with the outside Congressional ethics committee that’s in charge of doing effective oversight over the United States Congress is not a good way to start a new Congress,” Kind said, “especially when you’re in the majority of both houses and the presidency.”