Roosting chickens

As you may know, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is facing a bit of controversy over what passes for his ethics.

DeLay has come under close scrutiny in recent weeks following news stories questioning the financing behind a few of his overseas trips, notes the Associated Press. It's been charged that DeLay´s wife and daughter had been paid $500,000 in recent years by political organizations under his control.

In 1995, Republicans took control of Congress after repeated controversies against Democrats, particularly in the House which Dems had controlled for the previous four decades. In addition to promising to serve only three terms (which many of them broke), insurgent Republicans quickly passed ethics rules allegedly designed to stamp out the sleaze that had characterized Democratic control of the House.

Absolutely power corrupts absolutely. And after more than ten years of GOP control of the House, Republicans have proven no more immune to this axiom than Democrats were.

Accordingly, last winter, Republicans changed the rules they'd instituted in 1995. Under the new rules, enacted on a near party-line vote, no ethics committee investigation can begin without a bipartisan vote.

In other words, a party leader can't be investigated unless those who elected him party leader in the first place agree.

In other words, the new ethics rules are worthless.

While the far right DeLay has long been a target of the liberals and progressives, now, even some in his own party are becoming exasperated with DeLay. "The Hammer," as he is known, is so extreme in his views that many moderate Republicans (what's left of them anyway) fear that he will destroy their electoral chances. I'm sure Democrats are absolutely counting on this in their attempts to win back the House in 2006.

Rep. Chris Shays, a moderate from Connecticut, recently became the the first Republican Congressman to call for DeLay's resignation.

"My party is going to have to decide whether we are going to continue to make excuses for Tom to the detriment of Republicans seeking election," Shays said.

That Shays called for DeLay's resignation could perhaps be written off to the internal ideological battle between moderate Republicans and the far right. But even Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a darling of conservatives, called on DeLay to explain himself.

"I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves," Santorum said.

When Rick Santorum is raising questions about your integrity, you KNOW things are really bad.