The Trib is practically giving the Republicans advice on how to manage the DeLay scandals, and fortunately, the Republicans aren’t listening so drip, drip, drip
A charade? Not exactly. Republicans said they acted in good faith in offering to get to the bottom of allegations against DeLay concerning his dealings with lobbyists and other issues.
But this was, in effect, a GOP effort to negotiate the terms of an ethics investigation. The ethical standards and expectations of the House should not be subject to dealmaking. Republicans still haven’t come to grips with that.
The most hollow threat is Hastert’s:
On Wednesday, House Speaker Dennis Hastert suggested that Democrats had another motive for their boycott of the Ethics Committee. He said there were “four or five cases out there dealing with top-level Democrats.”
Is that bluster, or is Hastert on to something? We’re only going to find out if the Ethics Committee has the power to investigate, under rules that don’t permit either party to stand in its way.
The question to the Speaker is then, if there is illegal activity or just unethical on the Democratic side, why don’t you pursue it? Am I to understand that Speaker is ignoring such behavior? And why? Because of a stupid truce that may have benefited Members of Congress, but done nothing for the public interest?