Democrats demanded a halt Monday to the House’s Republican-led campaign finance investigation, contending the GOP has mismanaged its inquiry so severely that four key staffers quit.

“There is no hope for this investigation,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the ranking minority member and spokesman for his party on the Government Reform and Oversight Committee.

Waxman told reporters that the failures of the investigation, led by committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., were demonstrated when chief counsel John P. Rowley III quit along with three staff other members last week. Rowley cited “the unrelenting self-promoting actions” of chief investigator David Bossie.

In a letter to Speaker Newt Gingrich, Waxman said the House should defer to the Senate’s campaign finance hearings, which begin today.