Delay tactic

Dennis over at the Moderate Republican comments on efforts by Congressional Republicans to protect their leader Tom Delay. Several of his political associates have been indicted in Texas on illegally using corporate money to help Republicans win state legislative races in 2002. Those Republican victories in turn gave the state party enough legislative muscle to win redistricting changes that helped Congressional Republicans gain five additional seats in Texas on Nov. 2, according to the New York Times.

In the early 90s, House Republicans (then in the minority) passed a party rule whereby any leader who was indicted would have to step down temporarily. This was done to contrast their virtuous selves with former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the power Democratic Ways and Means Committee Chair who was indicted and convicted for mail fraud.

Yet, as Dennis noted, like all common-sense ideas, it was thrown out once it actually had to apply to someone, someone that might be responsible for their hefty majority.

Unlike partisan ideologues, he acknowledges an unsurprising, but unpleasant to admit, reality: What's disturbing about all this is that 10 years ago, the GOP came in to the leadership promising reform. A decade later, they are no better than the Dems they replaced. In some cases they are even worse, because they professed to take ethics more seriously than the Dems and yet did something totally different.