The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages — including those pertaining to the CIA leak case — have been taped over and are gone forever.

The disclosure came minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide.

 TPMmuckraker blog 2008-01-16

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to bring the contempt citations passed by the Judiciary Committee to the full House for a vote.

Pelosi has not determined a date for a vote but is "pretty certain" to push forward the contempt charges against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolton and former counsel Harriet Miers, a leadership aide said. Bolton and Miers refused to respond to Congressional subpoenas last year requesting their testimony and documents related to the federal prosecutor purge scandal that resulted in Alberto Gonzales stepping down as Attorney General.

 Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington 2008-01-16

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

Our organizations have called for the establishment of a new independent, professional entity in Congress to assist the House Ethics Committee in enforcing the House ethics rules. We believe such an entity is essential to effectively respond to the complete breakdown of the House ethics enforcement process in the last Congress and to help ensure that the new House ethics rules are properly enforced.

The organizations include the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters and Public Citizen.

We are very concerned that the proposal for an Office of Congressional Ethics offered by the Democratic Members of the House Ethics Task Force fails to provide the Office with investigative powers, such as subpoena power or access to subpoena power through the Ethics Committee.

 Democracy 21 press release 2008-01-16

House Minority Leader John Boehner used the first House GOP Conference meeting of 2008 to draw a very hard line on congressional earmarks.  Boehner, who is one of the few Members of Congress who does not earmark, told his colleagues that if they cannot break out of that habit, they will not regain the majority.

 The Swine Line blog from Citizens Against Government Waste 2008-01-16