Ohio's John Boehner: DCCC Says GOP House Leader Is Quiet Now Over Republican Boodling Report

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- House Democrats have accused Rep. John Boehner -- the GOP Minority Leader from Butler County -- of a double standard when it comes to Republican members of Congress who are under a corruption cloud. Boehner wanted Louisiana Democrat U.S. Rep. William Jefferson booted off a committee, then expelled when he was targeted by the FBI. But Boehner hasn't said a word about Alaska's Don Young, a member of his party who may have taken gifts and bribes for political favors.

Jennifer Crider, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took the shot at the Ohioan's purported hypocrisy:

"Apparently, Minority Leader John Boehner didn't mean it when he said that the 'clear likelihood of of serious transgressions will lead to suspension from important committees.' Don Young is being investigated for bribery -- one of the most 'serious transgressions' a Member of Congress faces -- but he still sits on the Committees overseeing the issues important to the company that allegedly bribed him. Clearly, Republicans haven't leared their lesson about holding their Members accountable for their wrong doing."

The DCCC's blast is HERE and followed news reports last week about Young's problems with an on-going corruptions investigation that has brushed up against several political figures in Alaska.

When Jefferson was in the headlines, Boehner was outspoken about ethics and cleaning the crooks out of Congress. Cynics and skeptics might suspect he only wants to clean out Democrats. Others say there is another double standard at work -- Jefferson is a black man, and the Republicans targeted him especially because of race.

Blogging Physicians And Medical Ethics: Bumping Into Patient Privacy Rules?

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- This legal liability issue is probably already signed into the free speech waiting room. Sooner or later, a state medical board or plaintiffs' lawyers will tangle with a blogging doctor. The dispute will erupt over the doc's description of something involving a patient, something that was considered too private, or too embarrassing or too identifying of the patient to disclose to a worldwide audience on the Internet.

Already, the ethical ramifications of blogging docs are under discussion, and blogging doc Medpundit is offering a good standard for fellow physicians to follow:

"Just use the elevator rule. If you wouldn't say something in an elevator full of people, don't say it on your blog."

Medpundit's post about blogging doctors appears to be one of the first about an emerging medical ethics issue that mixes patient privacy expectations, federal law, free speech and the unfettered nature of the Internet. Apparently, the topic was punted to the fore last week by a newspaper article in the Detroit Free Press that warned of potential pitfalls if docs are unrestrained.

"As the rage of Internet blogging spreads across professions, hundreds of doctors across the country are now writing online diaries that sometimes include harsh judgments of patients, coarse observations and distinct details of some cases.

"Critics say the blogs cross into an ethical gray area and threaten patient privacy while posing liability risks for health workers and their employers.

"A popular medical blogger, for example, wrote this in discussing an 18-year-old who on Christmas Day had her third baby: 'I don't mind it so much when a young single woman comes in with her first pregnancy, because anyone can make a mistake. But when that woman gets pregnant repeatedly, time after time, she degrades herself and her children, by condemning herself to a lifetime of dependency and irresponsibility.'

"The writer, who identifies himself as a neonatologist working in a U.S. urban area, writes about his practice at neonatal doc.

The anonymity provided by blogs has proved to be a powerful lure for doctors and other medical professionals, who, sworn to strict rules of confidentiality regarding patients, have few outlets to speak their minds."