The “Krauthammer’s Take” post reminded me of something. Kirsten Powers tried valiantly to defend Maxine Waters on the same program. I found it less than persuasive. But I thought this bit was interesting:

POWERS: I do have reason to be suspicious of this Ethics Committee, and one of the reasons is that at one point in this year all eight of other people they were investigated were black members of Congress. I’m not saying all eight of those people aren’t guilty. I’m saying there is something that isn’t right here.
And in the little bit of research I have done, it seems that a lot of these cases are brought by conservative legal groups, and they may be totally valid, but are we to believe there are no white people that are doing anything?
And the allegation now is that these groups disproportionately target minorities. And so if they are just handing over the cases to them and they take them, that’s a problem.
KRAUTHAMMER: Are we to believe the House Ethics Committee is racist?
POWERS: I would say they have a problem if they can only find cases against black people.
(CROSSTALK)
POWERS: I don’t know if it is a race thing. I think maybe it is a laziness thing. Maybe it’s because they get these cases served up to them and so they go after the people. The issue is maybe why are these conservative groups only bringing cases against black members?
BARNES: They spent a year on this case. They do not rush to judgment here.
POWERS: You don’t think it’s suspicious? Come on.
BREAM: Some of the cases come internally. Charlie Rangel reported himself to the Ethics Committee and he launched his own investigation.
POWERS: There is nothing strange about it that at one point all eight people were black? That doesn’t in any way raise any question?

I think Powers is right that about there being a problem if the Ethics Committee — for whatever reason — is only taking up cases of black representatives. And she may be right about why that’s been happening. If so, Congress should fix the problem and widen its net. But it’s also worth remembering that none of this speaks to whether Waters is guilty. If there is some flaw in the system that caused the Ethics Committee to single out members of the Congressional Black Caucus, that flaw should be fixed. But that flaw is no defense of any kind for Waters and other guilty parties (if they are found guilty). By all means, go after more corrupt white and Hispanic politicians too, but don’t let the black ones off in the name of “fairness.”