There was an interesting turn of events on the ethics front in Congress on Monday, as former Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) was publicly rapped by an outside ethics board setup in 2008 to review lawmaker conduct.

Usually, once a member of Congress leaves Capitol Hill, any ethics matters disappear as soon as that departure occurs. 

But this time, the new Office of Congressional Ethics decided to release a report on Deal, who left the U.S. House last week and is running for Governor of Georgia.

There had been speculation that Deal might be resigning from Congress in order to avoid scrutiny over whether he wrongly used his elected position to press the State of Georgia in ways that would benefit his family's auto-salvage business, a charge he has denied.

But the report from the OCE raised more questions for Deal about the level of his involvement, and therefore, about his bid for higher office.

"On March 26, 2010, the Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics voted unanimously to release the OCE's report and findings concerning former Representative Nathan Deal," said a statement on the OCE web site.  

You can read the 138 page report about former Rep. Deal at http://bit.ly/bPSkOZ . It details the basics of the investigation, which Deal argues is nothing more than a political sham.

"This has always been a political witch hunt fueled by Democrats who fear that Roy Barnes will lose the governor's race to Nathan Deal," said Deal spokesman Harris Blackwood.

"Nathan Deal did nothing wrong."

The ethics investigation also raised questions about whether Deal violated House rules on outside earned income, because his 2008 tax return showed $75,000 in income from his business.

"Representative Deal's conduct may have violated House Rules and House Standards of Conduct," said the report.

Deal's spokesman said it was nothing more than a mistake in how the money was listed on the former Congressman's financial forms.

"The only shred of truth in this political attack is that an innocent accounting error was made and subsequently corrected," said Blackwood.

From a Capitol Hill perspective, the ethics process in the House is certainly different with this outside board that goes through initial charges and then makes recommendations to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

There is no telling if the ethics committee would have investigated the Deal matter. 

But now we have much more public information about this investigation than we would have had several years ago, because the ethics process was changed in 2008 to set up this new outside panel to deal with Congressional ethics investigations.

So far, it has not been smooth sailing for the OCE, which has found itself at odds with the actual ethics committee on certain investigations.

And in this case, there are now 138 pages of official record which will follow Mr. Deal in his quest to become Governor of Georgia.