Burnt Orange Report

Seven Texas Republicans Vote Against Ethics Rules

By Byron LaMasters

Last week congress reinstated the old ethics rules that the GOP majority threw out earlier this year. The vote was overwhelming (406-20) after the Speaker and GOP majority decided to give up on the weaker rules. Interesting, seven of those twenty "no" votes came from Texas Republicans. The AP reports:

Seven Texas Republicans voted against the reversal of changes to House ethics committee rules that could open the way for another probe of Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

DeLay, however, voted for the reversal.

The House voted 406 to 20 Wednesday night to remove changes that Democrats charged were designed to protect DeLay. Republicans said the changes were made to bring fairness to ethics investigations.

Republicans who voted against the rules changes were Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton of Ennis and Reps. Michael Burgess of Flower Mound, John Carter of Round Rock, John Culberson of Houston, Louie Gohmert of Tyler, Ted Poe of Houston and Mac Thornberry of Amarillo.

So, why did these guys vote the way they did? Louie Gohmert gave this explanation:

"I supported these common sense reforms when they first passed because they are more fair than the rules being reinstated, and I don't believe Congress should be backtracking to succumb to this partisan grandstanding," Gohmert said in the press release. "I know the Republican leadership is just trying to be magnanimous and accommodating, but the new rules were more fair in January when I voted for them the first time, and they are still more fair, so my vote stays the same, period."

The Fort Worth Star Telegram editorialized on Reps. Burgess and Barton:

Sadly, this Congress is so infected with the disease of partisanship that even the actions of the only totally bipartisan House committee -- with its equal number of Republicans and Democrats -- will be viewed through a lens of cynicism.

And by the way: It is disheartening to note that local Reps. Joe Barton and Michael Burgess did not join the overwhelming majority of their Republican colleagues in voting to re-adopt the former rules -- a move that broke the logjam that barred the Ethics Committee from convening to discuss any issue, not just that of DeLay.

Meanwhile, the Amarillo Globe News took Rep. Thornberry to task:

Only 20 Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon, stubbornly supported keeping the rule changes. U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, approved letting the ethics committee do its job without manipulating the process.

Republicans were fighting a losing battle because they could offer no valid reason for changing the rules - one of which would dismiss an ethics complaint after 45 days - other than to provide political cover for DeLay.