Time for
change in the House.
"We have had to do some of the things we criticized once," [Republican Rep. David] Dreier admits. "But now that I'm in the majority, I have this responsibility to govern. It's something I didn't completely understand when I was in the minority."
The way Republicans wield their power is drawing special scrutiny because they achieved it largely by accusing Democrats of abusing it. The GOP swept to power a decade ago on the strength of its "Contract with America," in which Republican House candidates promised to "transform the way Congress works" and "end its cycle of scandal and disgrace."
The article then lists a litany of Republican misdeeds, and gives ink to the ethics charges just filed against DeLay:
Rep. Chris Bell, D-Texas, a first-term congressman who already has lost a primary necessitated by the redistricting, on Tuesday filed a three-pronged ethics complaint against DeLay. In addition to the matter under grand jury investigation, it charges DeLay with illegally soliciting political contributions from Westar Energy in exchange for favorable legislation and improperly asking the Federal Aviation Administration to track a plane carrying Democratic Texas lawmakers who left the state to stall the redistricting effort.
Bell's complaint was the first filed by a Democrat since 1997, when House Republicans barred outsiders from filing complaints against members. Until now, Democrats in the House had not filed complaints to avoid retribution from Republicans, and most accusations of misconduct have not produced ethics inquiries.
"The Republican majority has eviscerated the ethics process," says Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group. "It's the old story of power."
This lengthy article (in USA Today, no less) is further proof that the GOP majority is under fire from multiple quarters. They have overreached, and as a result their majority is threatened.
