At the same time that the House passed the rule for the Ethics Committee to investigate if Jefferson should be expelled (as Tecoyah's article notes, a recommendation for explusion would be a first by the House), it passed a concurrent rule that
directs the Ethics Committee to respond to the indictment of any House member by empaneling an investigative committee within 30 days.
It is interesting to note that one member who voted against both resolutions was repub Cong. John Doolittle (possibly the next House member to be indicted?). Doolittle’s home was searched by the FBI in April as part of the investigation into disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/...007-06-05.html
Even more promising is a proposal that a panel of four congressional outsiders be set up to decide which complaints merit investigation by the Ethics Committee. Since Congress has rarely shown the balls to investigate one of their own (The committee’s historical data show that just one complaint has been filed by a member in the past six years, and just two have been filed since 1997.) This would allow outside groups to call for investigating a House member's conduct and this new indepedent would decide to proceed or not.
http://public.cq.com/docs/cqt/news110-000002524230.html