GOP Kills House Ethics Changes
Republicans Turn Back Democrats' Bid To Revise Ethics Rules
-
Play CBS Video Video Gingrich Criticizes DeLay In an exclusive interview with Gloria Borger, Newt Gingrich says Tom DeLay has a lot to prove. DeLay has come under recent ethics scrutiny for his spending.
-
Video Ethics Questions Dog DeLay It's been one accusation after another for House Republican leader Tom DeLay. Publicly, he's got support, but Gloria Borger reports that even his party allies are questioning his motives.
-
Video Congress Goes Nuclear Gloria Borger reports that the Senate appears to be heading for an anti-filibuster move, called the Nuclear Option. Backed by the White House, it would stop Democrats from blocking court nominees.
-
-
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, has been dogged in recent months by reports of possible ethics violations. (AP)
-
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accused Republicans of showing "allegiance to the ethics standards of Tom DeLay." (CBS)
-
-
Interactive The 109th Congress Meet the leaders and follow the action in the House and Senate.
The reference to prayer recalled the controversy that roiled the House in 2000, they said. At the time, some Democrats quietly accused Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois of anti-Catholicism following the selection of a Protestant chaplain from a list of candidates that had been prepared by a bipartisan committee.
In response, Hastert unilaterally installed his own choice — a Chicago priest — as the first Catholic chaplain in House history.
Officials also said Rep. Anne Northup of Kentucky told fellow Republicans that her husband had once been the target of a baseless allegation, and she made an apology after deciding that even the appearance of wrongdoing warranted one.
Hastert and New York Rep. Tom Reynolds, among others, responded by telling fellow Republicans that Democrats were using the ethics committee for political gain. Hastert had earlier made a strong defense of DeLay, and he warned lawmakers that they, too, might become targets of what he described as an attack that was political at its core.
The officials who described Wednesday's meeting said it marked a departure from previous closed-door discussions, which they described largely as consisting of a series of speeches in defense of the embattled majority leader.
They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the rules of secrecy that govern the weekly sessions of the rank and file. The lawmakers whose comments were described either declined comment or could not be reached.
For the most part, several officials said the closed-door discussions did not touch on DeLay. Even so, the tenor of the comments suggested that some Republicans are eager to end the months-long deadlock over House ethics rules that was sparked by charges against the majority leader.
Officials also noted that while a deadlock over committee rules persists, the Republican chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, had offered a concession to Democrats at a meeting on Wednesday.
Democrats on the panel quickly rejected it as insufficient.
"It does not cure the partisan aspect of this whole exercise," said Rep. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the committee.
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ex-NBA ref Tim Donaghy 
