Reform DeLay
Innocent until proven guilty. If we truly believe that, then House Republicans have a point: Why punish leaders by making them step aside when they are simply indicted? After all, they haven’t yet been convicted of a crime.
A spokesman for Congressman Henry Bonilla of Texas says the rule change is designed to “prevent political manipulation of the process.”
Republicans charge partisanship by a Texas judge and admit that the change is being made largely in case Tom DeLay is indicted over fundraising there.
The new rule allows Republicans to decide each case concerning an indicted leader on a separate basis. Arbitrarily, in other words. Some leaders might have to step down, some not.
Republicans once used the old rule to show Democrats as corrupt. Now they change the rule when it actually bites them. Democrat House Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said, “Today, Republicans sold their soul to maintain their grip on power.”
We might ask why it has become so routine for congressmen to be indicted? Partisan judges or not. And the simple fact is that Tom DeLay has also been admonished by the House Ethics committee several times. Since Republicans control the body, they can’t simply blame partisanship.
Congress is becoming a home for arbitrary rules designed to benefit those in power.
What should the rules be? To Republicans and Democrats, there is no one answer. Because it all depends.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
The career of a politician mainly consists in making one part of the nation do what it does not want to do, in order to please and satisfy the other part of the nation.
In 1837, Queen Victoria got her crown exactly 152 years after James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, declared himself king – unsuccessfully (he was executed less than a month later). Victoria reined 64 years, during which time a number of interesting things happened on June 20:
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