House Ethics Panel Chief May Be Replaced

[Rose Siding]

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is leaning toward removing the House ethics committee chairman, who admonished House Majority Leader Tom DeLay this fall and has said he will treat DeLay like any other member, several Republican aides said yesterday.

Although Hastert (Ill.) has not made a decision, the expectation among leadership aides is that the chairman, Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), long at odds with party leaders because of his independence, will be replaced when Congress convenes next week.

The aides said a likely replacement is Rep. Lamar S. Smith, one of DeLay's fellow Texans, who held the job from 1999 to 2001. Smith wrote a check this year to DeLay's defense fund. An aide said Smith was favored for his knowledge of committee procedure.
...
The effort by DeLay and his allies to preserve his leadership post, even if he faces criminal charges, is one of the most sensitive issues facing Republicans as the new Congress begins. If Hefley is replaced by Smith, it is another signal by House leaders that they will stand by DeLay. "It certainly seems they're circling the wagons," said a GOP staff member who declined to be identified.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32307-2004Dec28.html?nav=rss_politics

[CO Liberal]

1. Having Joel Hefley In Charge Of Ethics in the House....

...makes about as much sense as when they had Al DaMato in charge of it in the Senate. Might as well put Kobe Bryant in charge of a chastity crusade.....

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Willy Wonka]

3. Amen.

I hate the Helmet-Hair that we call Hefley around here..


:P

[PurityOfEssence]

7. Yet even he didn't pass muster for proper corruption

The gloves are off now, and the discipline among the forces of evil will get ever stricter. Perhaps they'll overreach. Then again, perhaps they'll overreach and really not get knocked back down that far.

Boldness is the hallmark of their strategy, and we should expect them to continue. Meanwhile, Jim McDermott must be pilloried as Tom DeLay trips the light fantastic...

[Erika]

4. Or as much sense as placing Cheney in charge of Halliburton contracts

Oh, he was.

[Rose Siding]

5. Lawmakers think the job is "undesirable"

snip>
Hefley took the job reluctantly, and the post is considered undesirable among lawmakers. Hefley represents Colorado Springs, home to more than 20 evangelical organizations, including Focus on the Family, the large Christian enterprise run by James Dobson.
..............

Very rich- he doesn't want to hold his colleagues accountable to the "values" of his constituents....For just this reason! Doing the job at ALL (one weak letter that danced around the edges of the truth) put his power at risk.

The repub govt is corrupt to its core.

[davidinalameda]

6. why even have the ethics panel

they don't do squat about real violations except for sweeping them under the rug

how disgusting!

[genieroze]

8. Unless it involves a democrat. eom

[Ramsey]

9. They need an ethics panel

To dig up ridiculous 10 year old nonissues for every Democrat in the House!

[manly]

10. The House Ethics hahahahahahahahahaha committee

Why bother? It is clear that the ethics of our elected congressional saints are virtually sin-free. To quote the article: the House ethics committee announced an investigation into a Democrat's release of the transcript of a secretly recorded 1997 telephone conversation among GOP leaders concerning then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). It is the committee's first new inquiry in nine months.
Please note that last sentence. Nine months without a single potential besmirchment! Fantastic! And that includes the election shenanigans. What a country!
Of course, we're not counting george bush, who was out at the ranch, pretending to be Clint Eastwood.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

The more of these evil bastards that are drawn into the circle, the more of them there will be to fall, when the center collapses under its unethical weight. Like Watergate, it will take them all down at once.

Well, I can hope, can't I?

[quaoar]

12. Why don't the just

put Tom DeLay in charge of the Ethics Committee?

Might as well.

[VegasWolf]

13. Aren't political ethics an oxymoron anyway? n/t

[MsMagnificent]

14. Pigs. All pigs

"No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

--Animal Farm, George Orwell

[saracat]

15. This is the boldest most disgusting misuse of partisan power yet.

You will now begin to see the destruction of any Dem who so much as sneezes incorrectly but the most corrupt of the Republicans will walk free.