STOP THE PRESSES!

The slumbering beast awakens?

The House Ethics Committee announced an investigation Wednesday of Rep. Bob Filner's run-in with a baggage worker at Dulles International Airport last month. The incident resulted in misdemeanor assault and battery charges against the congressman.

As we noted this morning in the Daily Muck, the new investigation was actually triggered by the new ethics rules recently passed into law that require a review of members charged with a crime. Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) is the unhappy inaugural case.

Will this mean that it's still more likely that a member of the House become a target of an FBI investigation rather than an ethics investigation? I'm afraid so. But at least now, those members are sure to face the fury of the ethics panel after they see criminal charges.