What’s up Dunc?

No, the following isn’t fake news, it isn’t Andy Borowitz, it’s not Mad Magazine. It comes via my distinguished former employer, the San Diego Union Tribune. Rep. Duncan Hunter — who recently voted to gut the House Office of Congressional Ethics — used $600 of his campaign funds to fly a pet rabbit.

I now fully expect Fox News’ Sean Hannity (p.r. person for all conservatives) to argue that the rabbit was on the plane to as a financial consultant, since rabbits multiply. Here’s part of the UT article:

Rep. Duncan Hunter used campaign funds to pay for $600 of airline fees to fly a family rabbit, one of the more colorful expenses to surface in an ongoing review of his practices.

Hunter’s staff told the Press-Enterprise newspaper that the House Office of Congressional Ethics questioned the pet expenses — offered as an example of over-reach by the agency.

The ethics office’s independence was nearly clipped this week as one of the first orders of business for the GOP-controlled House, until President-elect Donald Trump and others questioned the move.

Critics saw the proposal as weakening an important check on legislative abuses of power. Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper defended the proposed procedural changes, according to the Press-Enterprise.

“The concerns are strong enough that it nearly prompted a significant structural change,” Kasper said.

The ethics office last year conducted a review of Hunter’s campaign expenses. Release of the report, and any follow-up action by the House Ethics Committee, was recently postponed pending swearing-in of the new Congress.

Hunter, R-Alpine, has reimbursed his campaign about $62,000 in campaign expenses that were personal in nature or lacked proper documentation, including oral surgery, a garage door, video games, resort stays and a jewelry purchase in Italy.

But aren’t those valid expenses? (Hannity, get your staff writing a rebuttal now…) AND:

The expenses came to light after inquiries by the Federal Election Commission and The San Diego Union-Tribune, and Hunter then hired a law firm to conduct a review that has not been made public.

Use of campaign funds for personal benefit is prohibited by federal law, as it might give undue influence to contributors. Most of Hunter’s campaign funds come from defense and transportation companies whose business is affected by committees upon which he serves.

Go to the link to read it in full.

The bottom line? These are the kinds of things politicos may traditionally do, assuming no one notices, particularly in these days when much (but not all) of the local press is diluted to to staffing cutbacks. Or, they figure it’ll never come to light.

But when it does the bulk of voters usually have this reaction:

Meanwhile, rabbits may not be too happy that there’s this fuss allowing contributors money to go to providing them a free free ride:

JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.

themoderatevoice.com/