Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to get to the bottom of what she describes as a “data breach.” A lowly congressional staffer, bless their little heart, inadvertently uploaded to a secret document to a file-sharing computer network, which eventually found its way into the eager hands of the press. It’s a secret report by the House Ethics Committee regarding ongoing investigations into possible wrongdoing by over 30 members of the House of Representatives, which includes at least half the members of the House Appropriations Defense Committee. The committee oversees more than $600 billion in Pentagon spending. The most interesting corruption charges involve the now defunct lobbying organization called the PMA Group.

PMA was founded by Paul Magliocchetti, a protégée of the powerful House Appropriations Defense Committee chairman Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). Murtha is believed to have received $2.3 million in campaign contributions from PMA since 1989.

The Los Angele Times reported that Murtha’s friends at PMA weren’t above threatening those who wouldn’t play ball:

“Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) said that his staff was recently interviewed by ethics investigators after Nunes complained that he was threatened by a PMA lobbyist for refusing to sponsor an earmark to benefit a PMA client in Nunes’ district. The lobbyist threatened that the client would move out of the district, taking jobs with it.”

According to the Washington Post, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, as well as members of the Congressional Black Caucus made a trip to the Caribbean’s island paradise of St. Martin. “The trip initially was said to be sponsored by a nonprofit foundation run by a newspaper. But the three-day event, at a luxury resort, was underwritten by major corporations such as Citigroup, Pfizer and AT&T. Rules passed in 2007, shortly after Democrats reclaimed the majority following a wave of corruption cases against Republicans, bar private companies from paying for congressional travel,” the Post reported.

Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, told The Los Angele Times, “This is evidence of the fact that Nancy Pelosi is standing knee-deep in the very swamp she promised to drain. Her decisions to stand by corrupt members of Congress like John Murtha and Charlie Rangel are putting members of the Democratic caucus at risk in 2010.”

Ken Spain is right to condemn Pelosi and her big spending Democrats, but this kind of corruption is unavoidable as long as Washington, whether in the control of Democrats or Republicans, wields such overwhelming power over our money and our lives. In other words, fight the power by taking back the power.

– Mr. Curmudgeon