4.30.2005
Doing Right on Ethics (WashingtonPost.com)
EDITORIAL
Friday, April 29, 2005; Page A22
SOMETIMES THE system works -- even if it takes too much time, noise and anguish. That is the happy lesson of the decision by the House Republican leadership to roll back the changes in ethics rules that were bullied through the body earlier this year. This uncharacteristic reversal may be portrayed as a political victory for Democrats. But that shortsighted analysis shouldn't give pause to House Republicans, who, however belatedly and reluctantly, did the right thing. In the end, their party, the institution in which they serve and the people they represent will be better off for it.
The move is important, first, because it clears the way for the House ethics committee to function again. The committee had been paralyzed by the understandable refusal of the panel's Democrats to operate under the new regime. The committee's first order of business, as four of its five Republican members already have agreed, ought to be an examination of the activities of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.): how his trips with lobbyist Jack Abramoff were generated; what Mr. DeLay knew about their shady financing; whether they were legitimate fact-finding efforts or a flimsy excuse for golf junkets; and the connection, if any, between the legislative interests of those financing Mr. DeLay's travels and his official actions.
(More ... Doing Right on Ethics) ¶ 11:45
Friday, April 29, 2005; Page A22
SOMETIMES THE system works -- even if it takes too much time, noise and anguish. That is the happy lesson of the decision by the House Republican leadership to roll back the changes in ethics rules that were bullied through the body earlier this year. This uncharacteristic reversal may be portrayed as a political victory for Democrats. But that shortsighted analysis shouldn't give pause to House Republicans, who, however belatedly and reluctantly, did the right thing. In the end, their party, the institution in which they serve and the people they represent will be better off for it.
The move is important, first, because it clears the way for the House ethics committee to function again. The committee had been paralyzed by the understandable refusal of the panel's Democrats to operate under the new regime. The committee's first order of business, as four of its five Republican members already have agreed, ought to be an examination of the activities of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.): how his trips with lobbyist Jack Abramoff were generated; what Mr. DeLay knew about their shady financing; whether they were legitimate fact-finding efforts or a flimsy excuse for golf junkets; and the connection, if any, between the legislative interests of those financing Mr. DeLay's travels and his official actions.
(More ... Doing Right on Ethics) ¶ 11:45
