Free Republic

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...