Doolittle: My Wife Quit before I Fired Her

When we noted Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-CA) conversion to ethical purity last week, we appended a loud “Sike!”* to note our skepticism.

But it didn’t take long for Doolittle to take it back himself. In an interview with McClatchy newspapers Friday, he backtracked on his key reform: severing his campaign’s and committee’s financial relationship with his wife, who had been getting a 15% commission on funds raised.

Though Doolittle trumpeted the decision last week, now he says that she “dropped his congressional campaign as a client, rather than him firing her.” And by the way, she’ll still be doing fundraising for his political action committee; it just won’t be in the form of a commission.

A brand new man.

*Note: Language purists are encouraged to read the comments to our last post before writing us an email on the spelling of “sike.”