2 GOP Members of Ethics Panel Bow Out of DeLay Inquiry
WASHINGTON — As the House ethics committee moved toward an expected investigation of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, two of the panel's GOP members recused themselves Wednesday from a probe of the Texas Republican because they had contributed to his legal defense fund.
The committee members took the step as two House Democrats proposed tougher rules governing congressional travel and lobbying, a measure inspired by the controversy over the funding of trips taken by DeLay.
Three House Republicans, meanwhile, sought to shift the spotlight from DeLay by noting that questions surround who paid for travels by some Democrats.
The Republicans urged Democrats to be as vigorous in demanding an accounting by their own members as they have been in pushing for a probe of DeLay.
DeLay is expected to be the target of an investigation by the ethics committee, which met Wednesday for an organizational session. Delay was admonished by the ethics panel on three separate matters in 2004.
The meeting came after the House last week resolved a lengthy standoff over how the panel's investigations should proceed.
Republicans bowed to Democratic demands to rescind a rule that would have made it more difficult for the committee to initiate investigations.
Two of the panel's GOP members, Rep. Lamar S. Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma, said they would recuse themselves from any matter involving DeLay that comes before the panel.
Smith's political action committee contributed $10,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund; Cole's gave $5,000. Both donations were made before the congressmen were appointed to the committee.
"Any decision of the committee on any matter relating to Mr. DeLay will come under intense scrutiny," Smith said in a statement. He said that he was recusing himself "to ensure that any decision is
Cole said that it was "important for the committee and for the House that its actions be viewed as nonpartisan and objective."
But he also assailed, without mentioning any names, "those that sought to politicize the ethics process."
"They should recognize the ethics process is to judge and, if necessary, discipline individual members. It is not a means to score partisan political points," Cole said.
The recusals, as well as the decision by committee chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) to allow reporters briefly into the panel's usually closed-door sessions to observe procedural votes, underscored the political sensitivity of the expected investigation of DeLay, the House's No. 2 leader.
