Daily Bad News for DeLay
Another day. Another piece of bad news for DeLay. New reports indicate that House Republicans are beginning to shy away from their embattled Majority Leader. The Washington Post is reporting:
House Republican leaders, acknowledging that ethics disputes are taking a heavy toll on the party's image, decided yesterday to rescind a controversial rule change that led to the three-month shutdown of the ethics committee, according to officials who participated in the talks.
The Post goes on to report that this rule change will be followed by further investigations into Tom DeLay’s questionable overseas trips paid for by a Washington lobbyist.
The Republican Party is right to rescind the rule changes. They simply can’t let DeLay’s ethics issues go unquestioned. But it will be interesting to see how strenuously the Majority Leader is investigated. Is this new development just a political calculation, or is the party turning on DeLay?
posted by Alan Stewart Carl @ 8:13 AM
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House Ethics Committee was “purged” of Independent Republicans
Although I was happy to read that House Republicans have agreed to overturn ethic committee rules they forced through back in January to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay, everything still isn’t kosher. The committee has to be restored to its original composition.
Last year, after Rep. DeLay had been admonished by the ethics committee on three separate aspects of his conduct, he and House Speaker Dennis Hastert passed new rules that fundamentally changed the ethics committee itself.
They also removed three Republicans on the committee who were considered too independent minded: Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.), Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio) and the committee chairman himself, Joel Hefley (R-Colo.).
Two of the Congressmen who have since been appointed to serve on the ethics committee, Reps. Lamar S. Smith (R-Tex.) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) have reportedly “contributed generously” to Mr. DeLay's legal defense fund, and they and others on the committee may have received contributions from Tom DeLay’s political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority.
So, even if it operates under the original rules, the “purged” ethics committee will never be able to judiciously weigh the evidence in the case of Tom DeLay.
“Power corrupts,” Lord Acton said, “and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
James Mullin
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