Federal investigators have concluded President Bush's former telecommunications policy chief committed three ethics violations by allowing industry lobbyists to throw her a party. The Justice Department, however, is declining to prosecute her.
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Ten days after the catered party in her honor in October 2001, Victory urged a policy change benefiting telecommunications companies that helped pay for the catered $3,000 event with 60 to 80 guests at her home in Great Falls, Va.
Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, released the findings from the IG's probe, which was triggered by stories last January by The Associated Press.
The party's six hosts were from the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, Cingular Wireless, SBC Communications, Intelsat Global Service Corp., Motorola Corp. and Victory's former law firm, Wiley, Rein & Fielding.
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By accepting the gift, Victory also violated the ethics standard that requires employees to avoid any actions that create an appearance that they are violating the law, the IG said.
On Oct. 24, 2001, Victory asked the Federal Communications Commission to immediately repeal restrictions that SBC, Cingular Wireless and other major cellular companies had long complained about.
The FCC voted two weeks later to phase out by Jan. 1, 2003, the limits on how much of the spectrum individual carriers could own in a geographic area. The agency had put the limits in place in the early 1990s to promote competition.
So the person in charge of Bush's telecommunications policy has a catered party thrown in her house by six of the industry's biggest lobbyists. Less than two weeks later she is repealing the "restrictions" they don't like and phasing out limits that promote competition.
Shouldn't these conflicts warrant the attention of federal prosecutors?
Not in this administration, which lied when it set high ethical standards for itself. But those promises were made back in a more innocent time, months before Osama bin Laden killed 3,000 Americans and gave Dubya his undeserved and temporary 90 percent approval rating — a confidence, born out of fear, that his administration and its deep ties to various industries interpreted as a license to pillage the US Treasury.
The Nancy Victory violations, those long-vanished ethical standards, and even the continuing existence of Osama bin Laden are forgotten now. Federal prosecutors have opted to spend their time and our resources chasing a 65-year-old bong dealer.
