4-15-05, 9:26 am

The House of Representatives will devolve into a free for all of ethics violations and corruption if its current state without a functioning ethics oversight body is allowed to continue.

Perhaps the person on the street will suggest something like, 'So what else is new?'

Continuing charges of ethics violations combined with new revelations about Rep. Tom Delay's relationship with 'Casino Jack' Abramoff, now under federal investigation for threatening and stealing from clients, dog the Texas congressman.

The House ethics committee, in a unanimous bi-partisan vote rebuked Delay in 2004 for calling the Federal Aviation Administration to interfere in a Texas political dispute and for hosting a fund-raiser attended by corporate executives with an interest in a federal energy bill. The panel also slapped Delay's wrist for threatening to withhold Party support for the son of Rep. Nick Smith of Michigan who planned to run for his father's seat in 2004 if Smith did not support the Medicare bill.

New revelations show that DeLay likely was directly involved in raising corporate funds for two political action committees (PAC) he controlled, illegal in the state of Texas, and that he may have improperly linked raising funds to consideration of pending legislation. (In other words, he may have solicited bribes in exchange for pushing the agendas of certain corporate donors through Congress.)

In February 2005, Rep. Joel Hefley (CO) was fired by the Republican leadership, which came to power on the promise of restoring integrity and honesty to government, as chair of the committee and two other members were replaced with Party loyalists. In fact, two of the new members ordered their PACs to pay several thousand dollars to DeLay's legal defense fund.

In the last three months of 2004 Republican members of congress turned over $174,500 to DeLay's legal defense fund.

Hefley's removal came just after the Republican leadership changed ethics committee rules making it harder for the committee to conduct investigations. The Republican leadership refused to abide by the bi-partisan nature of the ethics committee by not allowing Democrats to even vote on the rules changes.

Since then, the committee hasn't met as the Republicans have refused to budge on their adoption of those rules, designed specifically to prevent that body from examining DeLay's activities. But more recently divisions in the Republican Party have emerged over what to do with DeLay. While it is clear that the love of fundraising has made most GOP members of congress deeply indebted to DeLay, some have begun to speak out. Rep. Christopher Shays (CT), characterized by some as a 'moderate' who has a bad history with DeLay, called for DeLay to step down as House Majority Leader.

Shays said, 'I think he's hurting the party because he's just gone too far too often.' Shays described DeLay as an 'embarrassment.' 'He doesn't know the bounds of what's appropriate,' Shays added. 'He goes well beyond them. It's not that he may have broken the law, it's that he has continually pushed what is proper conduct to the very edge, and it's the accumulation of this.'

Sen. Rick Santorum (PA) called for a full accounting from the Texas congressman. Though, DeLay tried to construe Santorum's remarks as support, it is clear that more Republicans have been emboldened to speak out against the 'arrogance' of the Party's leadership.

According to the New York Times, two House members during a secret meeting of the Party leadership earlier this week leveled criticism at the GOP leadership over its handling of the ethics crisis. Their comments were leaked to the press. Rep. Joel Hefley (CO) spoke about how badly the ethics quandary was handled, and Rep. Dan Lungren (CA) warned the caucus that the leadership had become arrogant.

Political watchdog organization Common Cause described the situation in the House as 'intolerable.' In a prepared statement, Common Cause urged a restoration of order to the House 'allegations regarding the conduct of the majority leader and others, combined with a gutted ethics process, have created a dark cloud over the chamber.'

It further characterized the GOP's new rules designed to protect DeLay from further scrutiny as 'discredited' and in need of repair.

The GOP has tried to shift blame for DeLay's abuse of power and improper solicitation of donations to a 'vast left-wing conspiracy.' DeLay has tried to dodge hard questions by going on the attack – intervention in the Schiavo case and leveling shrill and baseless threats against 'activist judges.' In the process the GOP leadership has damaged the integrity of the House and have laid the basis for abuse, corruption and scandal after scandal with their current activities.

The Republican Party has precipitated a serious crisis of confidence in the government and the representative system. It is doubtful that it can be repaired without a real shift in partisan power.