Prometheus 6

You can't just fail to respond to the incredible arrogance embodied in the changes the Republicans made to the rules of the Ethics committee.

Democrats Block Ethics Panel Over Rewritten Rules
The lawmakers say that Republicans gutted the committee's ability to conduct investigations.
By Mary Curtius
Times Staff Writer
March 12, 2005

WASHINGTON   Just as new controversy has erupted over trips taken by congressional Democrats and Republicans  — including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) —  the workings of the chamber's ethics committee have been brought to a halt.

The leader of the Democratic revolt is a soft-spoken West Virginian with a reputation for bipartisanship. On Friday, Rep. Alan B. Mollohan said the Republicans had left him no choice but to thwart the committee's operations.

"The rules, each of them separately and together, seriously undermine the ability of the ethics committee to do its job," said Mollohan, the panel's ranking Democrat. "The rules are seriously flawed and extremely mischievous to the ability of the ethics committee to efficiently and responsibly discharge its duties."

...if you're actually, like, ethical.

But Republicans criticized the decision as a publicity stunt, and indicated that they were in no hurry to get the committee functioning.

It seriously makes sense that Republicans would be satisfied with a not-functioning Ethics Committee...it's the direction they were going in anyway.

"The Democrats have chosen to shut down the ethics committee," said Ron Bonjean, press secretary for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). "The only way to get around this impasse is for the Democrats to put the ethics process above partisan politics."

To say Democrats must rise above partisan politics takes such balls it is impressive as hell that these guys can sit, and walk around.

The roots of the conflict reach back to the last congressional session, when the ethics committee issued three reprimands of DeLay for misconduct stemming from aggressive political tactics.

The House GOP leadership subsequently replaced the chairman of the ethics committee, Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), and appointed three new members to the 10-member panel, which is equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. The new members were seen as loyal to DeLay and the House's other Republican leaders.

Without this partisan act, there would be no problem...

At the same time, the House leadership rewrote the committee's rules, which were passed on a party-line vote in January. The new rules allow the committee to launch an investigation only with the consent of a majority of its members   meaning a lawmaker would have to cross party lines to investigate a member of his own party. The new rules also limit the committee to 45 days to decide whether a complaint warrants investigation, and allows it to let the complaint die by taking no action.

That change, Mollohan said, "means that in tough cases, all members would have to do is sit on their hands for 45 days, then allow a case to be dismissed" without having to vote on it, as the previous rules required.

...and this actually institutionalizes the split.

Bonjean dismissed the objections by the Democrats, saying they were seeking to block the will of the House.

When the behavior of the members appear to step outside accepted norms of ethics, that is their job. And I include Republicans in that "they"