Hastert's House of unexamined ethics

[Eugene]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/01/06/hasterts_house_of_unexamined_ethics/

WEB EXCLUSIVE | THOMAS OLIPHANT
Hastert's House of unexamined ethics

By Thomas Oliphant, Globe Columnist | January 6, 2005

WASHINGTON -- SOMEONE NEEDS to tell House Speaker Dennis Hastert that
his idea of what constitutes progress is backwards.

Denny, no matter what Tom DeLay or any of his pals may have told you, it's not two steps backwards and one step forward; it's the other way around.

(snip)

The political world got a pretty decent demonstration this week of
what happens when an entire membership operates in lockstep instead of
as independent individuals who unite under a party banner at least
occasionally for reasons beyond feathering and protecting their nests.

Because well-intentioned dissent and criticism by Republicans is frustrated when it isn't suppressed in Hastert's House, his precious majority has begun the observance of the second decade of its ascendancy by behaving foolishly as well as dangerously on a matter essential to honest legislating - ethics.

(snip)

Baloney. They substituted a cute gutting of the ethics machinery for a
flagrant gutting of the ethics machinery. What was attempted in the
first place - making it harder to examine legitimate cases of alleged
misbehavior by members - has simply been achieved by different means.

(snip)