It all started on November 16th with the DeLay Rule and Shays Handful.
The DeLay Rule supporters then went out and tried to justify the rule to constituents. By way of example, here’s how Rep. Dreier, Chairman of the Rules Committee justified the Rule to his constituents; here’s page 1 and 2 of how Speaker Hastert did; and here’s how the biggest single recipient in Congress, Rep. Ferguson of New Jersey explained what happened.
Eventually, the House Republican Caucus had to knuckle under on the DeLay Rule because of all the constituent outrage. But at the same time, figuring no one would notice, they eviscerated the House Ethics Committee so as to do everything in their power to protect the recidivist ethics rules violator DeLay.
A month later, just to make sure DeLay wouldn’t be in any danger at all, Speaker Hastert purged the Ethics Committee of the three Republicans who had refused to vote for the DeLay Rule in the firt place (the so-called ‘Night of the Long Gavels’).
And now, here we are, almost three months later, and the Republican Caucus has once again been forced to repeal the DeLay-protecting rules they voted for and justified to their constituents only weeks earlier. By a vote of 406 to 20, the House today repealed all the rules passed in early January which deep-sixed the Ethics committee to protect Rep. DeLay from more scrutiny, admonishment and sanction.
Tonight, Rep. Chris Shays may not have the whole world in his hands. But he’s sure got the whole House Republican Caucus.
Predicted Broder-Fineman-Russert co-spin: “Sure the DeLay Rule was unpopular. But what new ideas do the Democrats have? All they can do is say ‘no’.”
