Ethics Rule Will Be Reversed - Hastert

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) will ask the House to rollback the ethics rule change they adopted in January that most people believe was done to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) in the investigation into his alleged ethics violations. The initial rule was change, would require a complaint to be dismissed after 45 days if the 10-member ethics committee -- five Democrats and five Republicans -- deadlocked. In the past, a tie vote kept the matter before the panel. As reported by Washingtonpost.com "House Republican leaders, acknowledging that ethics disputes are taking a heavy toll on the party's image, decided yesterday to rescind a controversial rule change that led to the three-month shutdown of the ethics committee, according to officials who participated in the talks." Of course, as with all things Republican, the proof will be in exactly how the new proposal is worded as to whether this will mean an honest probe into DeLay's apparent violations. Hopefully it will be honest and permit a necessary probe. Despite the outcry from the Democratic Party when the rule was initially changed, I hope they remember that this will also mean they too can (and should be) investigated also if the situation calls for it. No matter who the representative or which political party, the rules should be enforced equally.