The House Ethics Committee is investigating Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, over his role in an investigation of credit card companies.

The Washington Post reports that Thompson, originally elected in 1992, pressured major credit card companies into donating to his political ambitions by threatening them with higher, costlier security standards.

The committee had never before dealt with credit card issues, but Thompson warned Visa, MasterCard and others that Congress might need to impose tighter security standards costing millions of dollars to protect customers from identity theft.

Behind the scenes, some of Thompson’s staffers sensed a different motive — an attempt to pressure the companies into making political donations to the chairman, according to several former committee staffers.

Within just a few weeks of holding his initial hearing on the issue, Thompson’s coffers were flooded with $15,000 in campaign contributions from the credit card industry. Since those donations no legislation on additional security has been introduced by Thompson.

Several former committee staffers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have told The Post that the credit card hearing was one of several committee actions that caused staff concerns because of their consideration of potential donors and contractors friendly to Thompson. The current ethics inquiry was prompted this summer, according to an ethics document obtained by The Post, when a former committee aide alleged she was fired after complaining to her bosses that a lobbyist made improper requests of staff members.

It sounds like Thompson held the meeting as a warning to the credit card industry that failing to support his political career would result in more costs for the major companies. Once the industry poured money into his campaign coffers, Thompson relented and declined to introduce any relevant legislation.

The Mississippi liberal insists that the whole thing is just one big coincidence. He just happened to discuss higher security standards, the industry just happened to pour money into his campaign coffers, and he just happened to suddenly drop the issue as soon as the checks cleared. All a big coinkydink, you see.

Others, including those who possess basic common sense, don’t believe it:

Sarah Dufendach, a vice president at Common Cause, said the House ethics committee should take the staffer’s allegation against her former boss seriously, especially because Thompson’s office has had a number of staff departures. She questioned whether credit card security was a top committee priority, given terrorism threats and the need to plan for pandemic flu.

Yeah, there’s that, too. What is a Homeland Security chair doing dealing with credit card security in the midst of two wars, pandemics, and global terrorism? And why did he suddenly drop the issue when those potentially affected donated to his re-election campaign? Yet another amazing coincidence, supposedly.

In April and May, donations of $250 to $1,500 came in from lobbyists registered to represent Visa, American Express, MasterCard, Heartland and the National Installment Lenders, among others, as well as from the American Bankers Association political action committee.

House Ethics rules bar members from accepting donations that might be construed as attempts to sway them in the course of their official duties. Thompson taking in donations in order to convince him to no longer pursue higher security standards would seem to match that description.

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Thompson has come under fire from both sides this year. Check this out:

But in March, both Republican and Democratic staff raised concerns when Thompson moved to hold a committee oversight meeting at his alma mater in Mississippi, Tougaloo College, on how small and minority-owned contractors could get department contracts. The session included a series of firms explaining their value to the department, and staffers complained that it appeared to be an advertisement for companies and an inappropriate use of committee resources.

In July, Thompson held a hearing on Federal Emergency Management Agency housing alternatives in a disaster. Three of the invited witnesses were contractors who developed temporary shelters, and they testified about the value of their domes, trailers and assorted services. Two of those companies’ executives, lobbyists and family members donated to Thompson within a few weeks of the event.

Corruption isn’t unusual in the hallowed halls of Congress. But Thompson appears to be taking the practice to a new level. And yet I doubt the Democratic-controlled Ethics Committee will find their liberal colleague guilty of anything. It’d be too politically inconvenient going into next year’s mid-term elections.

More: Hot Air.