Republicans Lower Their Ethics Standards

Ethics?... who needs ethics when you have the hard hitting Tom DeLay who will do anything (and I mean anything) to extend Republican control of the government. DeLay, who scoffs at laws, rules, ethics and everything else that is good and proper, will remain in control of his party even if indicted. An ex-exterminator in Texas, he appears to have spent so much time with the cockroaches, that he has become one of them.

The silver lining in this is that Christopher Shays, the lone Republican I voted for, stood up against the rule change. Keep this up Mr. Shays and I may just vote for you again in 2006. It also gives people like Moore more fodder to make the case as too why they are morally superior to Republicans.

WASHINGTON — By Richard Simon Times Staff Writer - House Republicans changed a party rule Wednesday to allow Rep. Tom DeLay (news, bio, voting record) of Texas to remain as majority leader even if indicted in an investigation of campaign finance violations in his home state.

The new rule, approved in a closed-door meeting, represented the first significant action taken by emboldened Republicans since they increased their House majority in the Nov. 2 elections.

The lawmakers defended the change as necessary to shield DeLay from what they said was a politically inspired investigation designed to weaken one of Washington's most powerful Republicans. Democrats, downcast since their election losses, delighted in accusing Republicans of an ethical retreat.

A Texas grand jury has indicted three fundraisers with ties to DeLay on charges of illegally funneling corporate contributions to GOP candidates for state office. DeLay has said that he has not been questioned in the investigation, which is being led by the Democratic district attorney in Travis County.

Dist. Atty. Ronald Earle said in a statement from his Austin office Wednesday that the rule change would have no effect on the investigation. "But it should be alarming to the public to see their leaders substitute their judgment for that of the law enforcement process," he said.

DeLay did not address the change during the meeting of more than 200 House Republicans, participants said. But he told reporters later that it was necessary to prevent Democrats from using the Republican Party's rules against Republicans.

"The Democrats have decided that they're going to use the politics of personal destruction to gain power," DeLay said. "What we are doing is protecting ourselves from those assaults."

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), one of the few Republicans who spoke out publicly against the new rule, said: "For the life of me, I don't know why we're doing this now."

Shays said it was wrong to change the decade-old rule, which was put in place to show that Republicans could live by a "higher standard than our Democratic colleagues."

The 1993 rule required indicted Republican leaders to relinquish their positions. The new rule gives the 28-member Republican Steering Committee, led by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, 30 days after an indictment of a party leader or committee chairman to recommend "what action, if any," the party's rank and file should take.