Posted on 03/15/2005 8:03:34 AM PST by Arrowhead1952
EDITORIAL BOARD
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
The steady stream of ethical charges flowing around U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for more than a year are now threatening to inundate him.
DeLay has been admonished three times in the past 12 months by the House Ethics Committee. He is central to a Travis County grand jury investigation of possible campaign law violations and faces new questions about his travel and lobby connections.
Concerns arose last week about a trip DeLay, and others, accepted from the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council. The council is a registered foreign agent, which would make the trip illegal under House rules.
The powerful Republican from Sugar Land has not taken all this criticism calmly. Under his leadership, the GOP recently changed the makeup of the Ethics Committee, canning the former chairman and adding to the panel DeLay's friend, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, a Republican from San Antonio whose district includes parts of Austin.
GOP leaders also pushed through rules changes that would protect DeLay's position if he is indicted; allow easier dismissal of an ethics complaint; and allow one attorney to represent multiple clients accused of ethics violations. Most of this was done in secret, and House Democrats finally revolted.
To protest the rules changes, Democrats prevented the Ethics Committee from organizing last week. Because the 10-member panel is evenly divided by party, it couldn't produce a majority vote to adopt the new rules. Without rules, the House now has no mechanism to investigate or punish members.
The House is, as The Washington Post editorialized, "an ethics-free zone." Democrats insist that they will keep the pressure on until the Republicans undo the rules changes adopted to cover DeLay.
How long the GOP will put up with DeLay's power plays and ethical lapses is a matter for speculation. But some Republicans already are acknowledging that DeLay's position is weakening.
One Republican consultant quoted recently resorted to a remarkable bit of verbal gymnastics to describe DeLay's position. "The situation is negatively fluid right now for the guy," he said.
DeLay brought this on himself. His scorched-earth partisanship, coziness with lobbyists and flippant attitude toward House ethics rules made him a vulnerable target.
Republicans would be wise to get themselves another majority leader before more damage is done.
I prefer victory to being right. The need to be above it all is what has us on the brink of losing the country. Fight fire with fire. No one likes having their own tactics used against them.
"I prefer victory to being right."
This, my friend, is the road to perdition. Victory and Right is the only goal worth pursuing, otherwise we will simply create another version of what we set out to destroy, except it will be very likely much worse, given the entropic principle in politics. It is not playing dirty that have gotten us this far, although this is the way the lefties like to spin it. What has gotten us this far is conviction, faithfully adhering to principles.
We cannot let a cancer grow just because we are afraid the treatment might be politically painful in the short term.
I think that victory would be short-term if it is not done the right way. Republicans attract many people because we are considered the party who still believes in right and wrong. Once that perception is gone there will be nothing left to tell the two parties apart.
Please understand, I love the Republican Party and will not allow anyone to bring us down. (Not that Delay is, just stating that as fact.)
Thank you for your courage. I've been trying to find a strong counterpoint here. Ok. Here's what I found:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1363204/posts
"...Just days before DeLay's trip KORUSEC had changed its financial status by registering as a foreign agent. Under the new registration members of Congress are not allowed to accept such trips..."
Sounds to me, although I'm not well-studied on this, that maybe he got nailed on a ringer?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1363204/posts
"...Just days before DeLay's trip KORUSEC had changed its financial status by registering as a foreign agent. Under the new registration members of Congress are not allowed to accept such trips..."
Sounds to me, although I'm not well-studied on this, that maybe he got nailed on a ringer?
After the big storm calling for Newt's resignation after he accepted advance money for a big book deal, the media was silent when the Clinton's collected much more advance money on their book deals. If the media really wanted to fix this problem, they would ask DeLay to pass a law making such 'unethical' behavior illegal. DeLay stepping down will do nothing to solve the problem.
But DeLay stepping down will not fix the problem. Remember when Newt resigned because of a book deal he signed and the huge media pressure. A short while after, both the Clintons accepted a much larger book deal and the media was silent. DeLay stepping down will not fix this. If the media really thinks what DeLay did is evil, the media should demand the law be changed so politicians will stop doing this. Otherwise it will just be business as usual.
I just love it when liberal KOOKS give Republicans advice. /sarcasm
When the liberal KOOKS clean out their closets then they can start on someone else. They are the ones who defended Bill Clinton's perjury. Unless, they can provide PROOF of Delay doing anything wrong they should just shut the hell up!
Hell no, Delay won't go!
Liberal KOOKS seem to be afraid of him.
Don't forget their viscous racists attacks on Condi, their feeble attempts to destroy Jeb Bush, their relentless attacks against Katherine Harris. They really want to destroy Ken Blackwell, but I see no chance of that working either.
We all know the media is biased and liberal. Given that, I really think that Delay has to be replaced as Majority Leader.
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