Greenspeak on ethics is doubletalk

Mark Green talks about the need for ethics reform in both Madison and Washington. He just doesn't do anything about it in either place.

His "leadership" on the state ethics bill -- killed by Green's party in a closed-door Assembly GOP caucus last week -- was to issue a press release months ago calling for ethics reform. Green didn't lift a finger or put even the slighest bit of pressure on his fellow Republicans to do the right thing. Milwaukee Magazine's Bruce Murphy thinks that will hurt him.

In Washington, the House takes up an ethics bill this week that does very little except allow Republicans to say they voted for an ethics bill.

Last week, Green was among a handful of Republicans who voted against a rule setting the stage for this week's floor action. The Hill reports:

A spokesman for Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.), who also voted against the rule on the grounds that it didn’t allow additional amendments, was similarly undecided.

“It’s going to depend on what’s in there,” the spokesman said.

A reform advocate at watchdog group Public Citizen, which has called the bill a sham and urged members to vote against it, was disappointed that some Republicans would vote against the rule and then leave open the possibility of backing the measure itself.

Green is one of those Public Citizen is talking about.

Green knows full well "what's in there," since there can't be any amendments now.

"What's in there" is damned little in the way of real reform.