So the new Congress hasn’t even been seated yet, and already the fun has begun. On Wednesday, the Republican conference in the U.S. House made front-page news by changing its rule that had said that any member of its leadership who had been indicted had to immediately, if only temporarily, step down.
The new rule, proposed by Rep. Henry Bonilla and adopted on voice vote after nearly three hours’ debate, enables a GOP steering committee to review any indictment, and to render judgment as to whether it has merit or is politically motivated.
Clearly, the change is in response to the current troubles of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who faces possible indictment down in his home state of Texas in a campaign finance investigation. It is common knowledge on Capitol Hill that Rep. DeLay, known as “The Hammer,” is a force that every GOP member in the chamber must answer to, or face retribution. Not surprisingly, few were willing to oppose the new rule.
Rep. Mike Rogers, who serves Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District, indicated that supporting the rule change was a matter of practicality. “You have to look at protecting the institution,” Rep. Rogers told this page Thursday. “I’m an attorney, and any attorney knows you can get an indictment with a ham sandwich. We’re trying to raise the standard, to make it so that you don’t allow what is purely a political indictment to make someone step aside from a leadership role.”
The old “step aside” rule had been adopted in 1993 in a Republican effort to show that it did not have the sort of ethical problems then surrounding Democratic House Leader Dan Rostenkowski. In fairness, Democrats have little room to talk, as they have no current rule to remove indicted leaders either.
Yet the Democratic-Republican one-upmanship is not the real issue here. The issue is ethics. And it should be about everyone in Washington seeking to send a stronger ethical message, not one that is watered down simply because a powerful member like Tom DeLay is trying to cover his back. No matter what the intent of the rule change was, the perception from here is clearly buddy-buddy politics on The Hill.
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