Posted on 03/19/2005 10:08:55 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
WASHINGTON — Rep. Lamar Smith was urged to step down as chairman of the House ethics panel on Friday — even though he doesn't hold that title — by the chairmen of the Democratic Party in Texas and Ohio.
In a letter to Smith and Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.V., the ranking Democrat on the ethics panel, the state party chairmen said Smith's involvement in a San Antonio fund-raiser for a political action committee founded by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay poses a conflict of interest.
"We are writing to ask you to step aside as chairman of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct," said the letter, signed by Charles Soechting, the Texas Democratic Party chairman, and Dennis White, Democratic chairman in Ohio.
The letter was addressed to the "Honorable Lamar Smith, Chairman."
Smith is a member, and former chairman, of the ethics panel, but Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., now chairs the panel.
Smith brushed off the request as political gamesmanship by Democrats and declined to engage in a rebuttal.
"I am not going to respond to every Democrat that wants to play politics with the ethics committee," Smith said.
The breakfast event at the Red Barn restaurant raised funds for Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee (TRMPAC), which is at the heart of allegations of an ethics breach by DeLay and a Texas grand jury investigation into possible violation of state election laws.
DeLay has denied any wrongdoing.
The ethics panel set aside an inquiry into the matter pending the criminal investigation in Texas.
Soechting and White said Smith's involvement in the San Antonio breakfast "uncovers a conflict of interest that will be impossible to ignore even by recusing yourself once your committee resumes its investigation of Mr. DeLay."
"The only honorable course of action for you now is to step aside," the chairmen wrote.
Last year, DeLay was admonished three times for breaches of the ethics code.
Smith said earlier this week that he'd uphold the integrity of the House but would not say whether he would recuse himself from sitting on the panel if it takes up an inquiry into allegations involving DeLay.
Smith gave $10,000 to a DeLay legal defense fund to fight any charges that may result from the Texas grand jury probe.
-------------------------------------------------------- gmartin@express-news.net
This is my representative. I don't know too much about him, except he appears to vote the way I like, and he's very pro 2A.
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