Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Michael Corleone Would Be So Proud...
Such is life in today's GOP, where demonstrating good ethics by admonishing a shitbag like Tom DeLay can get a Republican tossed from a leadership position on the House ethics committee...
I think Michael Corleone said it best:
"Fredo, you're my older brother... and I love you...but don't ever take sides, with anyone, against the family again. Ever."
Fitting, don't you think?
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.
Republicans are bracing for the possibility that DeLay, who is the chamber's second-ranking Republican and holds enormous sway over lawmakers, could be indicted by a Texas grand jury conducting a campaign finance investigation that the party contends is politically motivated.
A word to the wise for Rep. Hefley:
Don't go fishing with Denny Hastert or Tom DeLay anytime soon, unless you want to end up looking like Mo Green's massage table...
UPDATE: In a wholly unrelated matter, the House GOP is now trying to make it harder for it's members to be brought up on ethics charges:
In the wake of back-to-back ethics slaps at the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, House Republicans are preparing to make it more difficult to initiate ethics investigations and could remove the Republican chairman who presided over the admonishments of Mr. DeLay last fall.
"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."
--Lord Acton
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