I was a little suprised to see this editorial in the Amarillo Globe News admonishing the GOP ethics committee rules changes and their attempt to shield Delay from ethics charges.
There are no shortage of articles about republicans turning cold towards Delay these days, but I felt that this editorial piece from what is a fairly conservative paper in a very conservative part of Texas is weightier than the same piece might be coming from say, the Austin American Statesman.
Read it and weep Delay.
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/043005/opi_1814956.shtml
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives backtracked Wednesday on unnecessary GOP-led rule changes in the House Ethics Committee that were a thinly veiled attempt to protect embattled Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Republicans who refused to play this political game deserve credit for realizing this was a battle not worth fighting.
Only 20 Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon, stubbornly supported keeping the rule changes. U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, approved letting the ethics committee do its job without manipulating the process.
Republicans were fighting a losing battle because they could offer no valid reason for changing the rules - one of which would dismiss an ethics complaint after 45 days - other than to provide political cover for DeLay.
DeLay, embroiled in a legal and ethical battle over lobbyist money, should be allowed to fight his own battles without resorting to party politics to do his dirty work.
Those Republicans who refused, albeit begrudgingly, to entangle themselves in DeLay's mess deserve recognition for not circumventing the process.