Hastert Was Right

When I saw the report last week that, in acquiescence to Democrat demands vis-a-vie "embattled" Majority Leader Tom DeLay, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert was backing down on the rules change enacted at the start of the 109th Congress that required an outright majority vote of the evenly-split Ethics Committee before an investigation could be ordered, I was all set to rip Hastert a new one. I had the headline all ready to go: "Senatitis infects other side of Capitol Hill."

After all, the reason the GOP majority made that change was to clamp down on Democrat scandalmongering, which could only be exacerbated by a party-line vote (i.e. a tie) automatically triggering an investigation. This looked like a Republican el foldo so craven as to make their Senate counterparts look ballsy by comparison.

Interestingly, though, no less than Rush Limbaugh made the spot prediction (as is his want) that Minority Leader Crazy Nancy Pelosi would howl in outrage about this move rather than cackle with glee. And, sure enough, she was criticizing Hastert's decision before the sun had set in D.C.

Limbaugh's take was that, given the ubiquitously bipartisan nature of the accusations thrown at DeLay (hiring family members, lobbyist-financed perks), allowing the Dems on the Ethics Committee to throw out an investigatory net would be all but guaranteed to ensnare a great many Donks whether or not it captured the Hammer. Pelosi's negative response seemed to confirm that notion.

And now we can see why.

House Republicans called Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi a hypocrite yesterday for not demanding investigations into new ethics questions that have arisen about the travel of her fellow Democrats.

"She demanded an investigation into [Majority Leader] Tom DeLay, but hasn't said a word about these Democrats who have done the same thing," said Representative Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina Republican. "If she doesn't call for investigations into her fellow Democrats, then it's clear she's being a hypocrite."

Republicans are wondering why the California representative won't ask for investigations into Democratic Representatives Norm Dicks of Washington, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, James E. Clyburn of South Carolina and Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, all of whom face questions about accepting travel paid for by lobbyists.

"As we expressed in earlier letters, Madame Leader, it appears more and more that your repeated calls for an investigation of Mr. DeLay are more driven by politics than by any real concern for the House rules," Mr. McHenry, with two other Republicans, wrote in a letter to Mrs. Pelosi yesterday.

Not only did the Speaker turn out to be right, he may have written a new chapter in how to combat the DisLoyal Opposition's "politics of personal destruction" gimmick. If they're going after Tom DeLay, and have nothing of substance on him, and are casting their trumped-up stones from decidedly glass houses, simply extend them enough rope to hang themselves, and then braid the noose and pull the rope taught. All it takes is opposition corruption (never in short supply in that party these days), impenetrably solipsistic opposition hypocrisy (also a plentiful commodity), and a willingness to play hardball.

The latter has been as rare as hen's lips. But maybe this fairly easy success will stiffen some trunks on the other side of the Capitol, once they see what a little courage can do:

Now the Democrats have been hoisted upon their own petard. They can't very well claim the moral high ground on ethics if they give their own members a pass. Either they will have to drop the efforts against DeLay, or they will have to sacrifice a number of their own representatives to pursue the GOP leader. With the number of people who fall under the bar Pelosi set increasing by the day, the House itself will lose interest in the whole thing ... and Pelosi may find herself out of leadership herself.

Dirty Harry Reid doesn't have any more brain cells to rub together than Crazy Nancy does. I hope Bill Frist was taking notes.