House Republicans Still Devious as Ever

Last night the House Republicans got together and decided to nix the DeLay rule, that would allow Tom Delay to retain his leadership position in the House even if he is indicted by the Texas Grand Jury that is investigating his campaign finance practices.

Why you ask, would they give this up?

Well, on the record, they are saying:
...they yielded to pressure from rank-and-file lawmakers concerned that the party was sending the wrong message.

But here's some other tidbits that surely must have influenced their decision:

1. DeLay told the caucus last night that he is confident he will not face indictment, said a DeLay spokesman, Jonathan Grella. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.)
2. Aides said DeLay made the decision quite a while ago that he would propose changing the rule on indictments back to the previous version, saying that he could see Democrats would continue using the change as a basis for personal attacks.
3. At their own private meeting, Democrats added a rule requiring party leaders to step down if they are indicted. Democrats planned to try to embarrass Republicans by proposing such a rule in the full House today.

However, they are still moving forward with these shinanigans:

1. Dropping a key standard for ethics violations. Currently, it is a violation of House ethics rules to act in such a way that creates the appearance of corruption. The new proposal would eliminate that ethics standard and make only actual criminal behavior or illegal activity a violation of ethics rules. (activities such as taking bribes, fixing parking tickets and having sex with House pages would no longer be violations.)
2. Deadlocking the ability of the ethics committee to investigate complaints. If the bipartisan House ethics committee ties along party lines whether to conduct an investigation, a complaint automatically triggers an investigation within 45 days. The new proposal would require a majority vote to initiate any investigation.
3. Punishing members of the ethics committee who scolded Rep. Tom DeLay for ethics transgressions. A few months ago, the bipartisan House ethics committee unanimously voted to admonish Majority leader DeLay for offering his endorsement to a colleague’s son in exchange for a floor vote, for appearing to link campaign donations with legislation, and for diverting Federal Aviation Administration resources to chase after legislators over a partisan squabble. Rep. Joel Hefley, the Republican chair of the ethics committee, and perhaps other Republican members of the committee who voted for the admonishment, are now facing a drive to remove them from the committee.

Thanks to Atrios for bringing this to my attention!