WP:DeLay Woes Prompt Rush to Refile Forms (likely to reverse ethics rule)

DeLay Woes Prompt Rush to Refile Forms
Lawmakers Fear Ripples Over Ethics

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01

Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.

Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.

Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay (R-Tex.) attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists.

-snip-
House Republican aides said yesterday for the first time that they believe they will have to reverse or modify the ethics rules that were passed on a party-line vote in January and have caused Democrats to refuse to allow the ethics committee to organize. Republican leaders had been trying to avoid a new floor vote over the rules, but aides said they now are convinced that they need to get the committee going so that Democrats cannot accuse them of squelching an investigation of DeLay.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/25/AR2005042501414.html

Watch out for the stampede.

.....Republican leaders had been trying to avoid a new floor vote over the rules, but aides said they now are convinced that they need to get the committee going so that Democrats cannot accuse them of squelching an investigation of DeLay......

..In another case, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not reported a 2004 trip to South Korea until a Washington Post reporter asked her office about it. Eddie Charmaine Manansala, Pelosi's special assistant on East Asian affairs, filed a disclosure form for the $9,087 trip a few hours after the newspaper's inquiry and sent a note to the ethics committee saying, "I did not know I was supposed to file these forms and I apologize for its lateness."

Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) even asked the ethics committee to investigate him after a reporter for the newspaper Roll Call pointed out that a travel disclosure form from 2001 listed the lobbying firm Rooney Group International as paying for a $1,782 trip to Boston, which would be a violation of House rules.

Abercrombie's aides said they have since determined that the lobbying firm's expenses were reimbursed by the nonprofit group that Abercrombie addressed on the trip, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. House rules state that the prohibition against lobbyists paying for members' travel applies "even where the lobbyist . . . will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client."

how, exactly??

And the Repukes changing the rules of the House to protect Delay is of far greater magnitude than any Dem's trangressions.

Let's keep the focus on the bad guys here.

I never meant to imply there was.

Doesn't happen near often enough.

Did ya notice how quite the Dem's got when the press was telling the world who Ken Lay contributed money too? Of course Lay gave the most to the right wingers! But the left had their hand out also.

:9 :9

During those hearing one of the things those in oppisition to his nomination did was to go around to the video stores he liked to go to and they managed to get the records of everything he had rented. They had hoped to come up with proof that Bork liked to watch twisted porno flicks. Turned out all he seemd to rent was old John Wayne movies.

Typical.

When news of this got out the elected clowns in DC had a quiet panic attack. In record time and in a very quiet fashion a bill was passed making it illegal to release anyones rental history unless a court order could be produced.

Pity. It would have been fun to see how many raging perverts there were in both parties.

We must work under the assumption that people will not differentiate between a minor ethics infraction and out and out criminal behavior. We need to be impeccable.


Bork was nominated as a reward for what he did for Nixon. Nixon wanted Archibald Cox fired. Nixon couldn't find anyone willing to do the dirty deed until he called upon Robert Bork. (Saturday night massacre)

That was one strike against him. But in the end it was one answer that took him down. When he was asked why he wanted the job, he said it was an "intellectual feast." All he mentioned was how it related to him, nothing about the importance and responsibility of the position. That sunk him. I remember watching him when he answered the question. I cringed when he answered. I knew he just put his foot in it. I kind of felt sorry for him because I know how it feels to totally fuck up a job interview.

The Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee at the time knew that Bork was a chainsmoker and would purposely slow down and draw out the proceedings and not call any recesses to see if he could induce a nicotine fit in Bork so bad that he would say something stupid.

I was wondering why he was so pissy.

This is the first I've heard of it, and I've heard so much about Bork. It's a subject which won't die, apparently.

Checking on Bork's videos? This is news to me. I need to read it.

Thank you.

that is ready to pop every time they get the chance.

hehe

I know--it's not nice to laugh at someone else's misfortune but it's the king repuke

the republicans are finally realizing that they cannot just go and and do every immoral and unethical thing that they please and get away with it.

Changing the laws to acquit the criminal just ain't gonna fly.

Anyone caught moving incriminates themselves. If they were playing by the rules, they'd have nothing to worry about.

"Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills ...

I could wish that the days of their grandiose sense of self-entitlement will soon be over, but that's just wishful thinking. This is a temporary glitch, but it does make me laugh to see them scratching their pointed little heads and wondering where they fudged.

Tom DeLay is making it more and more obvious that he is intent on trying to save his good name, which I don't think at this point can be saved.

:wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf: :wtf:

squelching investigation of DeLay?????!!!! that's why they changed the rules in the first place -- to protect DeLay from being throughly investigated!!!!!!

LEAKED: WASHINGTON POST TUESDAY:

HOUSE GOP AIDES ADMIT THEY WILL LIKELY MODIFY ETHICS RULES

"Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities," The WASHINGTON POST'S Mike Allen reports Tuesday.

Excerpts follow.

"Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.

"Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay, R-Texas, attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists.

House Republican aides said Monday for the first time that they believe they will have to reverse or modify the ethics rules that were passed on a party-line vote in January and have caused Democrats to refuse to allow the ethics committee to organize. Republican leaders had been trying to avoid a new floor vote over the rules, but aides said they now are convinced that they need to get the committee going so that Democrats cannot accuse them of squelching an investigation of DeLay.

Will link with WaPO story when live... (hopefully soon)

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/HOUSE_GOP_AIDES_SAY_ETHICS_RULES_CHANGE_LIKELY...._DEVELOPING...._04_25_2005_1124pm.html

what Dems in Congress can accomplish if they try.

but listen for that scurrying sound...

The Democrats know that the Republicans will resort to their usual tactics of muddying up the water so bad that Delay can escape. They know from past experience that there is no limit to the vindictiveness of a Republican scorned. The article notes several Democratic representatives and senators who also have lapses in record keeping or document filing. I can see it now - Repug operatives are digging through every Democrat's records to see what they can find and then harrumph, "look at these hypocrites picking on poor Tom DeLay - they are doing the exact same thing and this is clearly a politically motivated witchhunt." Blah blah woof woof.

Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.

Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/25/AR2005042501414.html

*straightens his neck, with some difficulty* ahhhhh, that's the old pride!

Can I just say that I am absolutely in LOVE with our new leadership? :loveya:

I have never been prouder to be a Dem!

they are becoming a cartoon, a nightmarishly craven one

peace

Because damnit, this is what we needed back then - Democratic Leaders with a set of balls on them to stand up to Repukes.

We have the repukes running scared over the ethics issue
We have repukes backing away from privatizing Social Security
We have repukes starting to cave on the filibuster thanks to Harry Reid wanting to impliment the Section XIV rule.

I'm loving my party!

I think what's been best is our party isn't so scattered brained before going after every issue out there and not having any focus on one. Right now - these are the 3 most important things we need to take care of and when we're done with these will work on 3 other very important issues.

ANd we'll have the repukes & Fristian Fundamentalists caving

... are wondering what they were thinking when they targeted Daschle. They had it so easy, but now those days are over :)

And now they need to start looking around at all the other things they thought were such great ideas on the part of Rove and find the faults there, too.

...greatful for the repukes defeating Daschle. I'm hoping in 6 years Stephanie H. their statewide representative will take a run against Thune.

We've proved we can win statewide in SD so it should be easy to get that seat back

.... Daschle was a good man, and would have made a great minority leader 20 years ago. In the current climate he was a fish out of water.

:rofl:

the feeding trough to take our food.