DCCC launches ‘House of Scandal’ website

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is launching a stand-alone website highlighting the wide array of scandals plaguing House Republicans.

The website, HouseofScandal.com, outlines details of the scandals and investigations dogging 22 House Republican lawmakers or candidates.

{mosads}It features House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) declaration in 2010, when Republicans were poised to take back the House, that Republicans should institute a “zero-tolerance policy” concerning ethics issues.

“Whether it’s indictments on tax evasion or encouraging their mistresses to get abortions, Republican leaders seem to have forgotten their ‘zero tolerance’ policy on members’ and candidates’ ethics troubles,” text on the site adds.

The site includes Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), in the news this week for his indictment on 20 counts concerning his former business on Monday, and Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.), who returned to Congress still facing calls for resignation over the married staffer he kissed.

It also highlights House candidates, such as Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick’s Republican challenger, Arizona House Rep. Andy Tobin, who was reportedly investigated for taking gifts from Fiesta Bowl lobbyists.

The new House of Scandal website is a rehash of an old DCCC attack that’s cropped up in previous cycles, including last cycle, when the site came along with a calendar featuring a different scandal-plagued Republican each month.

DCCC spokesman Josh Schwerin said the committee launched the site this cycle to “help voters keep all Republicans’ offenses straight.”

“It’s scandalous enough that House Republicans continue to stack the deck in favor of special interests at the expense of the middle class — it’s even worse that they’re doing it under a cloud of indictments and ethics investigations,” he said.

But Republicans were unfazed, pointing to Democrats’ troubles with ObamaCare as more important to voters than the GOP’s scandals.

“The only scandal voters will be talking about this fall is how Democrats repeatedly told voters how they could keep their healthcare plan, if they liked it. With Obamacare hurting their party across the country, Democrats have to resort to distractions,” said Matt Gorman, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

In part because of widespread opposition to ObamaCare, most political prognosticators give Democrats little chance of picking up the 17 seats they’d need to take back the House. But highlighting the scandals gives them the opportunity to make one lawmaker’s troubles a headache for the whole party.

But Democrats aren’t scandal-free. Some of Republicans’ targets this cycle, including Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) and Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), are considered vulnerable because they’re facing scandals and investigations of their own.

Still, scandals don’t always sink members of Congress — Grimm had been under federal investigation since before the 2012 election and he was able to eke out a win last cycle.

The indictment, however, has made his scandal much more difficult to overcome, and tipped the scales in his race heavily in favor of the Democrat.  

—This piece was updated at 6:10 p.m. to reflect comment from the NRCC.