House Republican Leaders Neuter Ethics Committee

House Republican Leaders Neuter Ethics Committee, Making an Independent Ethics Agency Necessary
Public Citizen

Republican leaders continue to plunge the U.S. House of Representatives into a crisis of credibility.

After purging the House ethics committee of members who dared scold House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) for his disregard of ethics rules, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), the new chair of the committee, a devout party loyalist, has just committed his first act as “ethics chief”: firing the two top ethics committee staff members who were instrumental in writing the rebukes against DeLay.

Ethics committee staff director John Vargo and chief counsel Paul Lewis have been given their walking papers. The decision smacks of retribution.