Wednesday, the fight reached a new level: Chabot convened the House Constitution subcommittee, which he chairs, and issued a subpoena to the commission.

Chabot said the commission has tried to keep its activities secret and that Congress' job was to "let the sun shine in."

"This will be good for the commission, good for the taxpayers, and good for civil rights in America," said Chabot, a Westwood Republican.

For a commission with so little power - it can make findings but has no enforcement authority - the commission has found plenty of controversy.

The eight-member commission has been riven by ideological conflicts. It's chaired by Mary Frances Berry, a Clinton appointee whom The Washington Post described as "famously feisty."

After the 2000 election, the commission reported that Florida's blacks were systematically denied the right to vote. (Back in 1981, it also issued a report on Cincinnati's police, accusing them of discriminatory hiring practices and lack of standards for using force.)

Chabot had earlier requested a General Accounting Office report on the commission. Among other things, the GAO found that the commission hadn't been independently audited in 12 years, that it awarded a contract for public relations to the Washington McKinney and Associates firm, even though it had three public affairs employees of its own.

The commission withholds transcripts from its own commissioners and issues news releases without consulting the more conservative commissioners, Chabot said; the four GOP appointees backed Chabot's subpoena.

The commission said in a statement that it would comply with the subpoena, and said it already had delivered 6,500 documents to the subcommittee.

"Despite a budget flat-lined for the last 10 years, the commission has maximized its modest resources to fulfill its important mandate," it said in a statement issued via McKinney and Associates. Formed in 1957, it has a budget of $9 million and a staff of 76. For more information see www.usccr.gov.

DeWine's Love Nest: Sen. Mike DeWine's Washington office - the same office that spawned infamous sex blogger Washingtonienne - really must be a romantic place to work.

No fewer than seven staffers in the 30-person office are engaged to be married, including two to each other. All of the weddings are in 2005 - so they won't conflict with DeWine's re-election run, said the only local one in the bunch, Blue Ash native and DeWine press secretary Amanda Flaig.

The big problem so far: Two of the weddings are Aug. 13. One is in Cleveland. The other is in Hawaii.

"Everyone wants to know which one the senator is going to go to," Flaig said.

Mr. Conservative: Rep. Mike Pence, who represents northern Dearborn and Franklin counties in Indiana, was elected chairman Thursday of the House's conservative caucus. Officially known as the House Republican Study Committee, it serves as the "conservative conscience" of the House GOP - a think tank, lobby and conduit for bills.

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E-mail cweiser@gannett.com