This amazing story—one more step down into the muck by Congress—dawned earlier today. I was going to wait until the morning to post about it, but I didn’t sleep well last might, and I can’t take another might of ethics nightmares.

As House Democrat were trying to delay a vote on a stopgap spending bill yesterday despite a looming government shutdown, a fire alarm sounded in the Cannon House Office Building, forcing an evacuation. It was a false alarm, and the reason it sounded was that Representative Jamaal Bowman, Democrat of New York, pulled it. Great idea! Bowman’s chief of staff, Sarah Iddrissu, eventually confirmed in a statement on Twitter/X, that Bowman, who represents the north Bronx and parts of Westchester County, had done the deed; she didn’t have much choice, since he was caught on a security camera..

“Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote,” Ms. Iddrissu wrote. “The Congressman regrets any confusion.” Showing an excess of chutzpa or a deficit in respect for the public, Bowman was claiming, at last report, to have set off the fire alarm by accident. How do you do that? That’s Bowman caught in the act above. I guess a sound track would receal taht he said, “OOPS!” when he pulled down the switch.

Added 1, from Axios: “Bowman later told reporters he “thought the alarm would open the door” because “the door that’s usually open wasn’t open.” My wife’s reaction: “That’s an insult to everyone. He thinks we’re all stupid.”

Added 2: Sources are now telling reporters that Bowman ripped down the signs at the door he now claims he thought would open by pulling the fire alarm. Those signs made it rather clear how to leave through them. They have been put back up: here’s the photo of the exit:

The New York Times hilariously wrote, “Republicans were quick to link the alarm to the vote on the spending bill.” Republicans pounce! Boy, that party is really something….just because a fire alarm happened to go off just as Democrats “were stalling a vote on a spending measure to keep the government operating for another 45 days”—the Times wrote that—the GOP leaps to the baseless assumption that a Democratic Congressman pulling the alarm showed a link to the spending bill! It’s another conservative conspiracy theory!

Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), has drafted a motion to expel Bowman from the House, her office announced. “This is the United States Congress, not a New York City high school,” Rep Malliotakis wrote on X. “To pull the fire alarm to disrupt proceedings when we are trying to draft legislation to AVERT A SHUTDOWN is pathetic.”

Not pathetic. Disgusting. Indefensible. Democrats should be drafting that motion. Meanwhile, the incident is being “investigated,” though I don’t know what there is to investigate. Bowman’s conduct, in addition to being an obvious ethics breach, is a crime, indeed more than one. In D.C. it is illegal to pull a fire alarm under false pretenses; it is also illegal in Bowman’s own state. And it is a felony to obstruct a federal proceeding. 18 U.S. Code 1512(c) says,

(c) Whoever corruptly—(1)alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or (2)otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

Bowman, a high elected official who is supposed to represent the best of the citizenry, has revealed himself as representative of the worst, willing to break laws in order to pursue a political objective. He’s a horrible role model, and his refusal to at least admit what he did and accept responsibility compounds the stain of this incident. What’s next? Setting off a smoke bomb on the House floor? Holding a member of the Speaker’s family as a hostage?

Bowman should resign, and if he had a shred of integrity and decency, he would. But then, if Bowman had a shred of integrity and decency he wouldn’t have done this.

I have followed Congress closely since I was a college student. Never, in all that time, has Congress been stuffed with so many unqualified, ethically-inert, dim-witted villains and fools as it is now, and I doubt that there was any Congress this revolting before that. The Democrats have “The Squad,” the despicable Adam Schiff, the slimy Eric Swallwell, Sheila Jackson Lee, the apparently mad Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Maxine Waters (of course), Bowman (this is his second IEOTM on Ethics Alarms), and more. Republicans have Matt Gaetz, the ridiculous Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, and don’t get me started on George Santos…plus others. No wonder the public doesn’t trust our institutions and the government. I wouldn’t have allowed any of these miscreants on the board of my theater company.

Speaker McCarthy called Bowman’s stunt “a new low.” He’s right, but with this sorry crew, I have no doubt that someone will sink lower.