That argument is consistent with how Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway defended the decision this morning on TV.
Ryan Struyk tweeted: Kellyanne Conway on gutting ethics watchdog on @GMA: "There's been an overzealousness in some of the processes over the years."
The member of Congress cited Congressman Sam Graves, as a case study on why the OCE needed to be overhauled. In 2009, the OCE began investigating an allegation that Graves had invited a witness who was friends with his wife to testify about renewable fuels in front of a House committee. OCE eventually cleared him of wrongdoing. (The Ethics Committee, which oversees the OCE, said at the time that the group may have acted improperly.)
Fair enough. Members of Congress, according to this member, believe the OCE was an out-of-control institution, making baseless, costly and damaging allegations against elected officials. Putting aside the fact that no one likes to have their every action scrutinised - hall monitors aren't exactly the most popular kids at school - let's take that assessment at face value for a moment: OCE was bad and something needed to be done about it.
How House Republicans decided to do something about it is still colossally dumb, politically speaking.
First of all, they gutted the OCE in a private conference vote - meaning that no Democrats were involved or forced to vote. If this frustration with the OCE was indeed bipartisan, why not get Democrats on board to support a proposal to change it? Why hold a private, internal vote before Congress is even fully back in Washington? In so doing, you hand Democrats - even those who might privately be supportive of the move to sideline the OCE - a chance to bash you as enemies of transparency.
Secondly, if the OCE is truly a rogue organisation, why not make that case in public before, out of the blue, demolishing it? If OCE was/is truly as bad as members of Congress seem to believe, then couldn't the public have been convinced of why these changes were absolutely necessary? Or at least apprised of why these changes were being made?
"There was clearly a lot of rank-and-file frustration with OCE," said one senior Republican member of Congress who opposed the move. "Many of the changes, like adding due process, are very positive; however, enacting the reforms in what looks like a partisan way was not the smartest way to make these changes."
Correct. Heck, even the President-elect agrees! Trump tweeted:
"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 ........may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS"
That so many Republican members - 119 had voted for the proposal - didn't grasp how remarkably bad it all looks to a public already deeply sceptical of Washington speaks volumes about how sheltered many politicians still are from the constituents who elected Donald Trump president on November 8.
Regardless of the merits (or lack thereof) of the OCE, the manner in which House Republicans scrapped it is remarkably tone deaf and should worry any member of the GOP about what's to come in this new legislative year.