Justice DeLayed

The Republican dominated House Ethics Committee has admonished House Majority Whip Tom DeLay for coercing a Michigan lawmaker to vote for a health care bill last year. A sub-committee report concluded that DeLay, who is arguably the most powerful member of the US House, went too far in trying to secure a victory.

DeLay told one GOP lawmaker that if he failed to vote for the health care bill, then the party would not support the lawmaker's son, who would soon run to succeed his dad in the House. His son lost the election.

"The promise of political support for a relative of a member goes beyond the boundaries of maintaining party discipline, and should not be used as the basis of a bargain for members to achieve their respective goals," the committee said in its report, saying there was evidence to find Mr. DeLay in violation of House rules.

The report also said it was inappropriate to trade hookers and crack cocaine for votes, or to threaten con-compliant party members with naked pyramids and mean dogs.

In a statement, Mr. DeLay said that he had not meant to violate House rules and that the panel had never ruled on this type of activity before.

"In this report the committee has provided guidance regarding a novel and very specific subject matter,'' he said. "I accept their guidance."


This is a test. This is only a test.

Conservative weblogs are yucking it up after John Kerry's reference to "a global test" during Thursday's debate. Instapundit readers are all over this:

1. Is the U.S. President a Republican?
2. Could this action possibly stabilize oil production?
3. Are France and Germany supplying the intended target with weapons or advice?

You get the idea.

Here's another question for the Instacomics: Does President Bush know who he appointed as US representative to NATO? I bet Kerry does. His name is Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns, and last spring he said:

The defining feature of this globalized world is that these transnational threats flow under, over and right through our national boundaries.  No oceans, mountains or fences are impervious to them. No country, including the United States of America, can sit back in isolation from them.

This is the great, global test of our time--how do we cope with this new set of challenges? The only way I know to spread the bright side of globalization and to fight the darker side is to join forces on a global basis in concerted international action. No one country, however powerful, can combat these incredible problems on its own. We need strong and purposeful global cooperation to defeat complex, global ills.
Thanks to Jerome Armstrong at MyDD
2.10.04 19:30
 


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