"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." — George Santayana
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- a.k.a. "Ethics" -- is embarked on a course that has been trod before.
Gather 'round the virtual bonfire, and I'll share a true tale of incestuous dealings, strange scratchings and foul odors emanating from behind stone walls, and things buried that refuse to die. I was there, I saw this with my own eyes, I have the scars to show for it, and the encounter haunts me to this very day.
In 1993, as Fred Grandy (R-IA/Love Boat) and I chaired the Ethics Committee, Newt Gingrich came rapping, rapping at our chamber door ... seeking clearance to televise a college course on practical politics, and nothing more.
Fred and I sternly advised the Minority Whip that he could teach the course -- unpaid -- provided he follow all the rules of the House and the laws of the USA. Little did we know then what lay in store.
With our letter in hand, Newt taped a series of lectures at Kennesaw State College. A web of Gingrich-sponsored enterprises -- public and private, partisan and philanthropic -- created course materials and propagated them via national satellite uplink, campus Republican workshops, candidate development seminars, activist boot camps, and even Special Order speeches seen on C-SPAN.
Renewing American Civilization -- the "GOPAC tapes" -- became the cornerstone of Newt's drive to "professionalize" the GOP and take control of Congress.
Complaints multiplied as we struggled to get our arms around the issues involved. Bloody battles raged behind closed doors. Newt's expeditions into the "gray area" put Lewis and Clark to shame.
By November 1994, legions of Newt-speaking GOPAC zombies had stormed the airwaves -- and taken the House! For the first time in 40 years, Republicans were in power and out to settle old scores.
One and only one obstacle stood between Newt and a permanent place in the firmament of American politics -- a bipartisan band brave enough to exhume the trail of ethical skeletons left by our newly powerful "Mr. Speaker".
We, the Ethics Committee, took up this thankless task: myself, Ben Cardin, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Sawyer, Kweisi Mfume and Bob Borski for the Democrats, with Republicans Nancy Johnson, Porter Goss, David Hobson, Jim Bunning, Steve Schiff and Jon Kyl.
[A tutorial aside: The Ethics committee is a unique and vital institution -- evenly divided no matter which party controls the House. Our Constitution charges each House to "determine the Rules of its Proceedings" and "punish its members for disorderly Behavior". If members square off and dig in along party lines, nothing happens in Ethics -- and anything goes in the House. And no Court would dare intervene to settle internal disputes. (We've just seen what happens when one branch of government tries to stage-manage another, haven't we?)]
After much preliminary wrangling, I appointed Pelosi and Cardin to an investigative sub-committee along with Nancy Johnson's choice of Goss and Schiff. We hired Jim Cole, former Deputy Chief of DOJ's Public Integrity Section (and the bane of many Democrats as Chief of Staff for the House Bank investigators).
We wrangled more over what to call Mr. Cole -- "Special Counsel" or "Special Prosecutor". The former won, a testament to Newt's maxim "language matters".
We spent a year tracing lines of control, communication and payment back and forth across Newt's tangled web, and finally settled on a reprimand, a $300,000 fine, an admission of wrongdoing on a single limited charge, and an anti-spin agreement. This barred Newt and his surrogates from mischaracterizing the matter -- under threat of censure plus reopened investigation on multiple charges. [And thereby hangs another tale for another reading.]
This was not the first of Newt's ethics woes, or the end of his story, but it was a turning point. A few months later, his own lieutenants plotted to replace him. They ended up double-crossing each other, and a couple of their bodies are buried in the political graveyard.
Newt dodged the daggers in mid-1997, but by the end of 1998 "Speaker Gingrich" was History, and History was getting ready to write the next chapter.
Fast forward to 2003. Former GOP Whip Tom DeLay became Majority Leader, having racked up a fist full of ethics complaints as souvenirs of the shortcuts he took in his drive for power. Ethics co-chair Joel Hefley (R-CO) duly slapped "the Hammer" on the wrist -- not once but three times -- without even slowing him down. Does any of this sound familiar?
By January, 2005, DeLay was in the market for Ethics insurance. He faced a flood of irregularities, an infestation of cronies, and the potential earthquake of a Texas indictment. In his interest, GOP leadership:
- Replaced Hefley with a more responsive co-chair.
- Replaced other GOP members with loyal contributors to DeLay's legal defense fund.
- Fired veteran staffers (some of whom had served both parties faithfully ever since I hired them).
- Adopted a Caucus rule allowing indicted members to hold leadership positions.
[At this writing, indictment is only optional -- not a mandatory qualification for leadership.]
Then they contrived rules to neuter the Ethics Committee.
- No complaint could be taken up without a majority vote. (A party line veto, in effect.)
- Pending complaints would be dismissed after 45 days. (Nothing happens that fast.)
- Targets and witnesses could share lawyers (and coordinate testimony).
- Members could demand immediate trial -- and thus exoneration -- on matters that had not yet been through the investigative wringer.
Democrats surprised DeLay's team by refusing to let the Committee adopt these rules -- or any rules -- at its organizing session. With no rules, the Committee can't sit. With no Committee, the rules question goes back to the whole House. In the whole House, everybody can smell it but nobody wants to touch it.
Deadlock beats capitulation, but deadlock not good enough. How long will the Speaker tolerate this ethical morass on his watch? How long will Doc Hastings (R-WA) consent to co-chair a charade?
Porter Goss (R-FL) may have done his partisan best to give Gingrich every benefit of the doubt, but when faced with indisputable facts he stepped up and did his duty -- setting institutional integrity above partisan loyalty, in the hallowed tradition of the House.
In Poe's classic Fall of the House of Usher, after generation on generation of unspeakable doings, of things that won't stay buried, the whole corrupt edifice suddenly folds in on itself and disappears.
We are partisan political animals, but only by heeding a call to Higher Duty can we sustain the Ethics process. Ethics keeps our House from dissolving in a welter of faults and fissures, and the House sustains "a republic, ma'am, if you can keep it". Where "ethics" comes down to party-line payback, procedural evasion, and the selling of indulgences, more is at risk than the House itself.
There's more to this story. Lots more. Some of it hasn't happened yet, but much of what happens next will repeat what has gone before.
DeLay's would-be successors are sharpening knives and drawing lots. Some of them have interesting histories of their own.
Of course there will be payback -- as I know only too well from the part I've played and the price I've paid. Partisan fiends have long memories: Borski (D-PA) and Sawyer (D-OH) both fell victim to redistricting crunches in 2002.
For what I did over a decade ago, I have endured ruthless (and expensive) attacks on my reputation, my household and my First Amendment rights to free speech. [See my site for details.]
But the pendulum swings, and cycles of payback can be interrupted by cycles of principled reform.
How can you help?
- Keep the pressure on, especially if you live in a Republican district, to bring the Mollohan Resolution on ethics rules to a vote. (Discharge would take so many GOP defectors, it would almost surely herald the Fall of the House of DeLay.)
- I can't post as often as I'd like, but please hit the [Subscribe] button to make sure you catch my next diary.
- Sign up for my e-newsletter for more "Can you believe this?!" news you might otherwise miss.
- My personal battle with these characters goes back many years, and continues every day. Donate here to help us keep fighting the good fight (and to let us know this blog post has been seen and heard).
- Join my call for an Independent Counsel to investigate the Majority Leader's web of intrigue.
Delay is a prelude to decay. Let's go clean House.