The Ethics of Tom DeLay

Tom DeLay is putting together a pretty good record of ethics violations. Think Progress has a list that you might want to look at.

But it isn't like DeLay isn't doing anything about it. According to the Washington Posts he has totally immasculated the Congressional Ethics Committee so that no matter what is reported on him now, as long as the Republicans refuse to act for 45 days the complaint goes away.

Last year the Ethics "committee took the extraordinary step of issuing three admonitions to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), infuriating the majority leader and his supporters. In the aftermath, the ethics panel's chairman, Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), and two other committee Republicans were removed and replaced with those more loyal to the Republican team. In addition, the GOP leadership did its best to neuter the committee by rewriting the rules for the new Congress. When their own members were too embarrassed to go along, the leadership was forced to backtrack on some of the most egregious changes. It left in place three others, leading to the current standoff."

The Democrats won't accept the rewritten rules that remove all teeth from the committee, so of course the Republicans are trying to blame them for the inability of the committee to operate.

Chutzpah, indeed. But they are Republicans, aren't they? No ethics and completely unwilling to accept responsibility even when they are caught!