John Kline: Reliably Opposed to Ethics and Oversight

This isn't exactly news, but I didn't want to let it pass without comment. About two weeks ago, the U.S. House of Representatives, for the first time in history, established an independent ethics oversight panel. Nancy Pelosi deserves a lot of credit for getting this done; it faced considerable opposition, and not just from Republicans:

The final vote, 229 to 182, belied the measure's controversy in the House; 159 Republicans and 23 Democrats opposed it. Even with two House members under indictment, two others sent to prison, and several others under federal investigation, nearly half the House did not want to submit the body to the scrutiny of a panel not under its control.

It should come as a surprised to no one that John "he doesn't need to talk about ethics; he's lived it" Kline voted against creating this ethics committee; moreover, he and the rest of the obstructionists came within one vote of preventing an "up or down vote" on the measure.

Despite my opposition to Kline on the issues, I have no reason to believe he's guilty of any breaches of ethics. So why is he opposed to an ethics oversight panel which Congress so obviously needs? Is there something going on we don't know about, or is he simply trying to protect the sizeable number of GOP legislators who might be exposed by such oversight?