It's About Time

It seems that the Speaker of the House of Representatives has decided that the Republican party can't take any more hits on account of Tom DeLay. He's agreed to change the ethics committee rules back to the way they were before.

You remember the deal - Tom DeLay was admonished three times last year for ethics violations, and now that he's in for an even worse time in court, the Republican-controlled House changed the rules so that a majority vote could ignore any charges against an individual member. This is the same party that decided a majority vote could not ignore charges, but that decision was made when Democrats faced ethics investigations - now that a Republican is in the same fix they don't want the same rules to apply. It won't wash, and it looks like some of them are starting to realize it. We're still not sure if this means that DeLay will have to face the consequences of his scummy activities, but it's a definite step in the right direction.

Meantime, over in the Senate, Kos reports that the Democratic leadership ran rings around the Republican leadership again. I, too, am exceedingly glad that Reid is on our side. The main point in both cases, though, is that Congressional Republicans overextended themselves on both ethics rules and judicial nominees, and whatever happens next they've been horribly embarrassed by Democratic refusal to give in and have only themselves to blame. Who says Democrats have no backbone?

Benshlomo says, Is it just me, or does victory make people stupid?