from today's Washington Post (print) front page:
GOP Pushes Rule Change to Protect Delay's Post
and now on the WP wesbite:
House GOP Approves Rule Change to Protect DeLay
House Republicans approved a party rules change Wednesday that could allow Majority leader Tom DeLay to retain his leadership post if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury on state political corruption charges.
By a voice vote, and with a handful of lawmakers voicing opposition, the House Republican Conference decided that a party committee of several dozen members would review any felony indictment of a party leader and recommend at that time whether the leader should step aside.
The current party rule in this area requires House Republican leaders and the heads of the various committees to relinquish their positions if indicted for a crime that could bring a prison term of at least two years. It makes no distinction between a federal and state indictment. Three of DeLay's political associates already have been indicted by that Texas grand jury.
from the print story (but curiously absent from the website story):
House Republicans adopted the indictment rule in 1993, when they were trying to end four decades of Democratic control of the House, in part by highlighting Democrats' ethical lapses. They said at the time that they held themselves to higher ethical standards than prominent Democrats such as then-ways and mens chairman Dan Rostenkowski (Ill.) who eventually pleaded guitly to mail fraud and was sentenced to prison.
file under 'Flip Flops' (or maybe "Have You No Shame?&q
file under 'Flip Flops' (or maybe "Have You No Shame?&q
"I recommend that you delete the Rancid Snakepit" - Grant
