Democrat Transparency

House Ethics Panel to Probe Tom DeLay

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican chairman of the House ethics committee offered on Wednesday to begin an investigation of Majority Leader Tom DeLay to end a stalemate that has kept the panel from functioning this year.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., made the proposal at a news conference flanked by three of the four other Republicans on the ethics panel. The evenly divided committee also has five Democrats.

Senior committee Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia quickly rejected the offer, saying his party would continue blocking the panel from operating unless investigative rules imposed by Republicans were changed.

This is the second time in two weeks that Republicans tried to break the deadlock, while Democrats have held their ground and criticized the GOP-written rules for investigating lawmakers, passed in January without Democratic support. Democrats have accused the majority party of writing the rules to protect DeLay.

...DeLay has offered to appear before the committee to defend himself against allegations of misconduct, including his travel with a lobbyist whose clients may have paid for the Texas Republican's foreign travel on several occasions...

"I've sent letters to the committee asking to appear before the chairman and ranking member to discuss matters," he said. "And for more than a month I've said I hope for a fair process that will afford me the opportunity to get the facts out and set the record straight. I welcome the opportunity to address this with the committee."

Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., escalated the conflict by indicating that Republicans are ready to investigate allegations of Democratic wrongdoing.

In a radio interview with broadcaster Sean Hannity, Hastert said there were "four or five cases out there dealing with top level Democrats." He did not name them.

"There's a reason they don't want to go to the ethics process. As long as they can keep somebody dangling out there like they have with Tom DeLay, they take great glee in that," Hastert said.

...The investigation cannot proceed unless Democrats end the stalemate over the rules. Hastings called the proposal "a means by which he (DeLay) can state his case."

Hastings said he would guarantee in writing that Democrats could have three months - and possibly longer - for a preliminary investigation of a lawmaker. Hastings promised that no case would be dismissed without a vote of the full committee.

Hastings made a similar offer last week, but not in writing. Mollohan on Wednesday repeated his earlier rejection of that offer, saying it would not prevent the automatic dismissal of cases - allowing one party to run out the clock.
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The Democrats continue to condemn DeLay, yet they refuse to allow the Ethics Committee to do its work. In spite of guarantees that the case would not be dismissed, the Dems won't go along with it.

They're just doing what they do best---

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