Give it
up. A new face on the organizational chart picked from Team DeLay
won't save the sorry image of House Repubs. Ditto ethics rules
that any half-competent politician can subvert faster than you
can say "election lawyer." If Republicans want to convince
voters that they've reformed, here's a suggestion: Pick Rep. Joel
Hefley, R-Colo., to replace DeLay.
It would
be glorious payback. When Hefley was chairman of the House ethics
committee, he stood up to DeLay. In 2004, his committee unanimously
admonished DeLay three times -- for offering to trade a candidate
endorsement for a vote in favor of the Medicare drug plan, for
cozying up to energy lobbyists in a way that "at a minimum,
created the appearance that donors were being provided with special
access" and for asking a federal agency to track a plane
carrying members of the Texas Legislature during a political squabble.
GOP biggies were miffed -- not at DeLay, as they should have been,
but at Hefley.
In retaliation,
the GOP leadership announced it would change committee rules to
make it harder to investigate complaints, and thus shielded DeLay.
Hefley complained that the changes threatened "the integrity
of the House." The GOP leadership kindly dumped Hefley and
found a new man to chair the committee.
What better
man to replace DeLay then the man who lost a committee for standing
up to "The Hammer"?
As the Almanac
of American Politics noted, Hefley said of DeLay: "He
lets me know repeatedly I'm not part of his team, and that's fine.
I don't want to be part of his team."
Here's another
welcome departure from the frenzied logrolling that has been endemic
under House Speaker Dennis Hastert: "He often offers amendments
to cut appropriations by 1 percent and in September 2004 stripped
dozens of transportation projects off an appropriation because
they had not been authorized," wrote the Almanac. Hefley
had explained, "It's just an exercise to illustrate that
you ought to do it by the proper procedure."
Hefley's
Web site targets "the Porker of the Week" -- and if
Hefley doesn't find a porker every week, at least he is willing
to target the worst projects pushed by the most profligate Republicans.
In November, for example, Hefley took after the infamous $320
million earmark for Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere."
And this
is downright quaint: Hefley raised a measly $100,000 for his last
re-election campaign, and won handily.
Under Hastert
and DeLay, the GOP leadership has betrayed Republican principles.
Deficit spending has been the leadership's crutch, and fund raising
its addiction. It's clear DeLay and his cronies would still be
living large and skirting rules if uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff
had not pleaded guilty to defrauding Indian tribal clients, conspiring
to bribe members of Congress and evading taxes. If the GOP is
calling for reforms, it's not because the party saw the light.
It's because the leaders got caught.
That's not
why voters elect Republicans. The GOP is built on people who want
less government, not record spending. They want their lawmakers
to be pro-business, but also expect their representatives to feel
more allegiance to their constituents than sleazy lobbyists flashing
first-class plane tickets.
Hefley spokesperson
Kim Sears told me the congressman has received "some encouragement"
to pursue the plum House majority leader position, but he is "not
actively seeking it." As Hefley told Sears, to win leadership
posts, a member has to devote years to working up the ladder --
it doesn't seem likely that a lawmaker who put his district first
could become leader.
Changing
the ethics rules won't help the Republicans if they continue to
choose leaders because they are the biggest fund-raisers and the
best backslappers. If Republicans want to get back to their philosophical
roots, they should find a leader who remembers why he went to
Washington. They should choose a leader who still believes in
"the integrity of the House."
