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December 30, 2004

The old face of evil

(via The Stakeholder)

Public Citizen today asked the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a formal investigation of possible violations of federal anti-bribery statutes by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and former Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.), as well as executives and lobbyists for the Kansas-based Westar Energy, Inc.
In a letter to Noel Hillman, chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, Public Citizen wrote that substantial evidence, especially newly-released documents from a House ethics committee investigation, suggests a possible scheme using campaign contributions to buy political favors worth millions of dollars to Westar Energy and its executives.

Will the investigation happen? Not if House Republicans get their way:

In the aftermath of back-to-back ethics slaps at House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, House Republicans are preparing to make it more difficult to begin ethics investigations and could remove the GOP chairman who presided over the admonishments delivered to DeLay last fall.
A House leadership aide said a package of rules changes to be presented to the House when the 109th Congress convenes Tuesday could include a plan that would require a majority vote of the ethics panel to pursue a formal investigation. At present, a deadlock on the panel, which is evenly split between the two parties, keeps the case pending. The possible change, the aide said, would mean that a tie vote would effectively dismiss the case.

And the few ethical Republicans left in the House? Hastert wants to make sure they're powerless:

During the last Congress, Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), chairman of the House Ethics Committee, proved himself something of an inconvenience as well when it came to Mr. DeLay: Under his leadership, the all-too-often slumbering committee bestirred itself to admonish the majority leader for an array of ethical missteps. Now Mr. Hefley risks meeting the same fate as the discarded rule. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is poised to decide whether to let Mr. Hefley continue in the thankless task of heading the committee. According to The Post's Mike Allen, Mr. Hastert is leaning toward removing Mr. Hefley.

The Post is reporting that Hefley wants to keep the House Ethics Chair job, despite Hastert's mouthpiece saying he might be replaced because he's been Chair for "a long time".

These Republicans are thumbing their noses in the face of the American electorate. And no wonder. We continue to send them back to Washington despite their very public ethics issues.

Posted by Carla at December 30, 2004 05:36 PM