A Delay in Enforcing Ethics

The Republican Party leadership in Congress has me confused. I can't tell if they are bent on committing political suicide or if they just swallowed the entire bottle of stupidity pills now that they have control of both the House and Senate.

There is no other possible explanation for the decision by the Republican leadership to reverse a decade old rule that any member of the House leadership who is under indictment must relinquish his or her leadership position until such time as the indictment is resolved one way or another. Originally designed to embarrass former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski who was indicted for corruption and forced to step down, this rule would have required current House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to step down from that post if an ongoing investigation of him results in an indictment. Seems that DeLay may have violated fund-raising laws and he may be indicted for it. Or maybe not. In any event, his fellow Republicans don't want him to be forced out of his leadership role if he is indicted.

I am beginning to think that these people have lost touch with reality and are thinking that Bush is going to be crowned King, not inaugurated for a second term come January. Changing rules to ignore ethical standards, after making names for themselves back during the Clinton years by pushing those same ethical standards is the epitome of stupidity.

DeLay should do the ethical thing by voluntarily relinquishing his leadership post, temporarily while the questions that are swirling around his fund-raising activities are investigated, and once any alleged improprieties have been investigated and been proven to be just allegations, then he can resume his position with no further tarnishing of his reputation. That is what a wise, ethical man would do. That is not what Tom DeLay will do. Like many Texas politicians, he thinks he is not just above the rules, but as an author of the rules, he is completely and totally exempt from them and they exist only for others and not for himself.

There is an old story told about former President Lyndon B. Johnson that may help to illustrate just how powerful Mr. DeLay thinks of himself as. One of President Johnson's staffers was talking to another, lamenting over the conditions under which they both toiled and the other staffer said "You know, sometimes I wish that LBJ was the Pope." The first staffer looked up and asked "Why in the world would you wish that?" The second staffer smiled wryly and replied "Because then we would only have to kiss his ring."