This week the Republicans could not have shown America any better why the House of Representatives desperately needs to create an independent panel to assist with ethics enforcement.

First it was the 35 count indictment against Rick Renzi (R-AZ) earlier in the week.

Now, on Thursday, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on H. Res 895, which would enact the recommendations of the bipartisan Ethics Task Force to create an independent panel to investigate ethics complaints.

In response, senior House Republican aides are reportedly compiling a list of Democratic House members to target with ethics complaints if the House votes to create the independent commission. We need your help in demanding the entire Republican Leadership -- John Boehner, Roy Blunt, Adam Putnam and Thaddeus McCotter and any other Republican who believes in the rule of law -- immediately denounce these political assassins who have dared to draw up and publicize a list of Democratic lawmakers they intend to persecute if the House votes to establish an independent Office of Congressional Ethics. Call them today. The number for the Capitol Hill switchboard is (202) 224-3121. (If you do call, please tell us about it: www.commoncause.org/CleanUpCongress.

If Republicans lawmakers do not repudiate this behavior before the vote on Thursday, we have no choice but to conclude the Republican leadership condones what amounts to political extortion as a legitimate way of making laws in the House of Representatives and are not serious about enforcing ethical standards in Congress.

One wonders what they fear so much about an independent panel, chosen jointly by the Speaker and the Minority Leader, that would make them act like thugs.