The House adopts Relaxation Techniques

What I find so astonishing -- and, frankly, so dispiriting -- about the efforts on the part of the GOP in the House to completely indemnify themselves against any punishment resulting from their ethical "lapses," is just how transperent they are in doing so.

The proposed change would essentially negate a general rule of conduct that the ethics committee has often cited in admonishing lawmakers -- including Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- for bringing discredit on the House even if their behavior was not covered by a specific regulation. Backers of the rule, adopted three decades ago, say it is important because the House's conduct code cannot anticipate every instance of questionable behavior that might reflect poorly on the chamber.

Republicans, returning to the Capitol on Tuesday after increasing their House majority by three seats in the Nov. 2 election, also want to relax a restriction on relatives of lawmakers accepting foreign and domestic trips from groups interested in legislation before the House.

A third proposed rule change would allow either party to stop the House ethics committee from investigating a complaint against a member.

Currently, if the panel, which is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, is deadlocked on a complaint, the matter automatically goes to an investigative subcommittee after 45 days. The proposed change would drop any complaint that is not backed by a majority vote to move it forward.

Government watchdog groups called the proposals startling and unjustified. If the proposed rules are adopted next week as GOP leaders suggest, they would amount to "the biggest backtracking on House ethics rules that we have seen," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21.

Further, Dennis Hastert is mulling stripping Joel Hefley (R-Col.) of his ethics committee chair as punishment for letting ethical charges against Tom DeLay go forward earlier this year.

As I said, I find all this astonishing and dispiriting. Astonishing, because obviously the House GOP have absolutely no fear of public disapproval for their hubris and slavish circling of the wagons around the ethically-challenged Delay. Dispiriting because I fear their instincts are right and they have no reason to fear any public disapproval.

Power is all that matters to Republicans now. And they know that between the stark partisanship of the electorate and the greasing of the skids brought about by redistricting makes maintaining that power far more easy than it has been for decades.