Pig Pile on DeLay?
Two months ago we reported that Tom DeLay, unhappy about being censured not one but three times by the bi-partisan House Ethics Committee, had his marionette Dennis Hastert replace the committee's remarkably uncooperative Republican chairman, Joel Hefley of Colorado. DeLay also had two other recalcitrant Republican members of the committee replaced with two Reps who had contributed money to his own legal defense fund. At the time we offered up our prayers for the instigation of the Republican circular firing squad, 'cos Hefley was righteously pissed.
And we are pleased to report that God came through on this one. Per the Upper Left we learn that Hefley has signed on as one of the co-sponsors of a bill put forward by Rep. Alan Mollohan (W-VA), the ranking Democrat on the ethics committee, to repeal or revise changes that the Republican leaders made to the committee's procedure at the start of this congressional session. More than 190 House Dems have signed on as co-sponsors since that time, although so far only one other Republican -- Christopher Shays (R-Conn) -- had done so.
It's a GIANT slap in the face to DeLay, and it's expected to provide political cover for other GOPers who might be thinking that support of the dyspeptically corrupt DeLay is turning into a giant stinking turd of liability in the upcoming election.
Hefley was the only Repug who voted for Nancy Pelosi's resolution yesterday calling for Hastert to appoint a bipartisan task force to look into the House ethics procedures. But lest anyone want to put him on a white horse, it should be noted that Hefley voted for the changes in the procedures when the vote came up early in the session; his change of heart seems to have coincided with getting the boot from the chairmanship by Hastert.
I'm thinking maybe God wound up with the same bellyache the rest of us did when DeLay stood up as a self-appointed pillar of morality in the Terry Schiavo affair this week and finally said "enough is enough."
posted by Jane Hamsher @ 3/20/2005 12:00:00 AM
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