House GOP reverses stance on ethics violations

[irishgrl]

GOP reverses ethics stance
House GOP Reverses Course on Ethics Rules

10 minutes ago
Top Stories - AP

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - House Republicans suddenly reversed course Monday, deciding to retain a tough standard for lawmaker discipline and reinstate a rule that would force Majority Leader Tom DeLay to step aside if indicted by a Texas grand jury.

However, the closed-door GOP meeting made one ethics change that could make it easier for one party to block a House ethics committee investigation of a congressman.

The provision would require a majority vote of the evenly divided committee to proceed with an investigation. The GOP voted to scrap the current system, which allowed an investigation to begin automatically if the two top committee leaders took no action on a complaint after 45 days.

The proposals go before the full House on Tuesday. The rules changes include a decision to give new authority to the committee that oversees homeland security issues, a step that the Sept. 11 Commission had strongly advocated.

The surprise dual decisions on the indictment rule and the discipline standards were engineered by Speaker Dennis Hastert and by DeLay ? who asked GOP colleagues to undo the extreme act of loyalty they handed him in November. Then, Republicans changed a party rule so DeLay could retain his leadership post if indicted by the grand jury in Austin that charged three of the Texas Republican's associates.

When Republicans began their closed-door meeting Monday night, leaders were considering a rules change that would have made it tougher to rebuke a House member for misconduct. The proposal would have required a more specific finding of ethical violations.

Republicans gave no indication before the meeting that the indictment rule would be changed. Even more surprising was DeLay's decision to make the proposal himself.

Jonathan Grella, a DeLay spokesman, said DeLay still believed it was legitimate to allow a leader to retain his post while under indictment. But Grella said that by reinstating the rule that he step aside, DeLay was "denying the Democrats their lone issue. Anything that could undermine our agenda needs to be nipped in the bud."

Grella said Republicans did not know that DeLay would make the proposal. "He was doing some thinking and this was the conclusion he came to," the spokesman said.

Hastert made the proposal to retain the current standards of conduct.

Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said, "It's a mark of a leader to take a bullet for the team and not for the team to take a bullet for the leader. I'm very glad we decided to stick with the rules."

Hastert spokesman John Feehery said that a change in standards of conduct "would have been the right thing to do but it was becoming a distraction."

Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, said Republicans pulled back on the discipline rule because "the issue simply became too hot for them to handle."

Democrats on Monday toughened their own indictment rule. Previously, only committee chairmen were required to step aside if indicted. Now, the same rule applies to House Democratic leaders.

Rep. J. D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., agreed there was pressure on Republicans not to change conduct rules. "Constituents reacted and the House and, more importantly, the House leadership, responded accordingly," Hayworth said.

The House will debate all new rules proposals Tuesday, the first day of the 109th Congress.

Another Republican proposal would allow relatives to accompany a House member on a trip financed by a special interest group or nonprofit organization. Current rules specify a spouse or child may go along.

The code of conduct that was retained by the Republicans requires lawmakers and employees to conduct themselves "at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House." Some Republicans believed the standard is too general and wanted discipline to depend on a more specific finding of wrongdoing.

House Democrats and Republicans had an informal ethics truce after an investigation of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich's activities with tax-exempt organizations ? a probe that ended seven years ago with a financial penalty against Gingrich.

That truce ended last year when a freshman Democrat, Chris Bell of Texas, filed a complaint that led to a rebuke of DeLay. The House ethics committee cited the general rule several times in criticizing the majority leader.

However, the panel did not find that DeLay violated any other standard of conduct, even though it concluded that DeLay created the appearance that an energy company's political donors were given special access to him. DeLay also was admonished for his office's contact with federal aviation officials, seeking their intervention in a Texas political dispute.

Later, the ethics panel, formally the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, also admonished Bell for filing a complaint that presented an exaggerated description of DeLay's conduct.

The outgoing chairman of the ethics committee, Republican Joel Hefley of Colorado, issued a statement before the meeting opposing any change in conduct rules that was not bipartisan.

Congressional watchdog groups joined House Democrats in opposition to a change, saying any such move would be for one purpose: to protect DeLay.

"All of this is designed to make one man truly above the law," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said, "Tom DeLay is a poster boy for ethics problems in the House."

[strandinthewind]

and another:

GOP reverses course over ethics rules
House Republicans opt to retain tougher standards
From Ted Barrett
CNN




WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Majority Leader Tom DeLay asked House Republicans Monday to reverse a December rule change that allows indicted leaders to continue to hold leadership posts in the chamber.

The rank-and-file members agreed to do so without dissent, two House Republican leadership aides who attended the meeting told CNN.

The so-called DeLay Rule had been heavily criticized. At Monday night's meeting, lawmakers praised DeLay for seeking the reversal.

Rep. Zach Wamp, a Tennessee Republican, had opposed the rule change. It would have allowed DeLay to remain in power if he were to be indicted by a grand jury in Travis County, Texas, that is conducting a campaign finance probe that involves DeLay.

"It takes a big man to do what he did, and a smart politician," said Wamp, who feared the DeLay Rule would have created a chasm in his party. "This allows us to stick together."

But Republicans did vote to change one key rule to require a majority on the ethics panel -- which is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans -- to vote in favor of conducting a formal investigation into allegations of wrongdoing against a member.

Currently, an investigation is triggered if the committee remains evenly split for 45 days on whether to take that step. The new rule is designed to provide a "presumption of innocence" for the accused, similar to what exists in the judicial system, according to Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who once led the committee.

'Took the bullets right out of Nancy Pelosi's gun'
Monday night's meeting was called to review proposed changes to internal House rules, which will be voted on Tuesday by the full House.

Also at the meeting, Speaker Dennis Hastert announced the withdrawal of another proposed change to House ethics rules. This one would have removed language stating that a member "shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House."

Republican opponents considered the existing language too vague and open to political abuse. But after other Republicans complained it would be wrong to drop a standard that parallels the code of conduct for military personnel, the proposed change was dropped.

"I don't want to see us retreat at all on standards," said Wamp, a member of the GOP class of 1994, which rode to power with Rep. Newt Gingrich on promises of ethical reform.

DeLay did not apologize at the meeting for the controversy the rule change created. And comments from Republicans indicated Monday night's move was motivated primarily by politics.

A spokesman for DeLay said Democrats will now lose the one talking point that Republicans believed might have been effective against them.

Wamp said the move "took the bullets right out of [Democratic leader] Nancy Pelosi's gun."

DeLay has been admonished three times by the House ethics committee, and he faces possible indictment in Texas in connection with a campaign finance probe.

The ethics panel said DeLay's attendance at a June 2002 golf fund-raiser for his leadership political action committee created an "improper appearance." The event was attended by energy company officials and held as House and Senate conferees were about to hash out energy legislation.

The committee also found that DeLay's office improperly contacted the Federal Aviation Administration in May 2003 to track a plane carrying Texas Democratic legislators, who had fled the state in an attempt to thwart a Republican plan to redraw the state's congressional district map.

The committee said the contacts amounted to an improper use of governmental resources for a political undertaking.

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