GOP Reverses Itself and Drops the "Delay Rule"

After dropping several ethics regulations that had been adopted while the Republicans were the minority in Congress - including one that prevented indicted House members as serving in leadership positions - the House GOP conference voted to restore most of the regulations yesterday. The so-called "Delay Rule" had been voted in to protect Majority Leader Tom Delay from what is seen as a politically-motivated investigation into fund-raising practices by an overly-partisan DA in Texas. But when Delay himself requested the "Delay Rule" be dropped, the GOP moved quickly to reverse itself.



This is good news. Weakening ethics standards while in the Majority is an invitation to abuse of power.