Eleven years ago, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives toughened their ethics regulations by prohibiting any member under state or federal felony indictment from holding a party leadership position. That served as a stark contrast to the ethical challenges facing some of the Democrats who then controlled the House.
But last week, House Republicans changed the regulations to ensure that Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, would remain majority leader if indicted on felony charges of fundraising violations. This retreat from elevated ethical standards reflects poorly on the GOP House leadership.
The reversal, made in an unrecorded voice vote behind closed doors, comes with Rep. DeLay under investigation for alleged state fund-raising violations in Texas. The GOP leadership argues that such charges would be baseless, partisan maneuvers by a rogue prosecutor. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, told The Dallas Morning News: "You can be indicted for just about anything in this country."
And Rep. DeLay told The Washington Post that while he doesn't expect to be indicted, he supports the rule change because otherwise Democrats could "have a political hack decide who our leadership is." He added that Democrats "announced years ago that they were going to engage in the politics of personal destruction, and had me as a target."
If Rep. DeLay considers himself a target now, he should consider how much bigger a target he becomes by abandoning an ethics rule he once hailed. If this was a good rule in 1993 (and it was), it's still a good rule in 2004. And if the Democratic Texas prosecutor who has already indicted three of Rep. DeLay's campaign associates also indicts the majority leader, and the charges are proved to be without merit, that truth would ultimately surface, presumably accompanied by appropriate political consequences for anybody who abused the system.
Meanwhile, however, the GOP leadership in the House has willfully weakened its ethics image by changing its rule to accommodate one of its own.
Click here to return to story:
http://www.charleston.net/stories/112104/edi_21edit2.shtml