Seniority, party loyalty and congressional etiquette don't seem to get in the way of Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.).
The freshman lawmaker is ready to break with his fellow Democrats by supporting a proposal to subpoena documents that may reveal unpleasant details about two prominent Democratic senators and their involvement in a discredited Countrywide lending program.
The first-term congressman, who won Rahm Emanuel's seat in April, backs a full-scale investigation into Countrywide, the disgraced subprime lender, that would include a Republican proposal before the House oversight committee to subpoena potentially damaging records related to preferential loans Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Kent Conrad (N.D.) received through the lender's "Friends of Angelo" program (which refers to indicted Countrywide chairman Angelo Mozilo).
"At this point in my state's history and my country's history, we've got to go out of our way to be transparent," Quigley told the Huffington Post. "Much of what took place with predatory lending is responsible for the financial crisis."
Quigley is ready to cross the aisle at a time when the issue has so deeply divided the two parties that the Democrats punished House oversight Republicans for shooting "campaign style videos" from inside the chamber by changing the lock on a door leading into the hearing room from the GOP suite of offices.
Quigley relied heavily on his reputation as a reformer to win the special election to the Fifth District seat Emanuel vacated to become President Obama's chief of staff, and vowed to take his reformist ways to Washington, D.C.
His willingness to support an investigation into the two Democratic senators could be seen as an indication of his determination to stay true to that promise and a sign of how sensitive Democrats are to charges of hypocrisy when they purport to be helping everyday people and yet are getting special treatment from banks.
"Republicans punted away control of Congress because of ethics violations," Quigley said. "I'm just here to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to my party."
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), who is proposing the subpoenas, offered as a concession to the Democratic-led committee to allow names to be redacted, but Quigley wants the names kept in.
"If in the course of an investigation, subpoenas are issued and members' names are included, fine. We'll send the names to the ethics committee," Quigley said. "But that shouldn't halt a broader investigation."
Committee chairman Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) has resisted calling a vote on the proposal. Towns also received mortgages from Countrywide but denies any wrongdoing.
An oversight committee hearing scheduled for Thursday was abruptly postponed on Wednesday afternoon, after Democrats said they needed more time to sift through a stack of documents from Bank of America that arrived recently.
Though Quigley said he thinks Democrats will come around to supporting an investigation, he acknowledged that the response from his side of the aisle has been uneasy. Arguing against his own party is nothing new for the former Cook County commissioner, who regularly found himself a lone opposing vote against the Democratic-controlled Board.
"This reminds me of my first three years on the county board," Quigley said, referring to his opposition to a Democratic proposal in 2000 to increase the county parking tax. "It has the same tenor, same tone, same mood. It's like deja vu."
A committee source said the hearing that was postponed could be rescheduled for early next week.
A spokeswoman for committee chairman Towns declined to say whether he would call Issa's subpoena proposal for a vote or whether he would support it.