Speaking of Chris Bell’s ethics complaint against Tom DeLay (see below), at the time of its filing, a long-standing ethics truce between the parties had been broken. Talk of a full-blown partisan war in the House was everywhere.
Indeed, House Republicans talked a good game about all the attacks they were prepared to levy against House Dems.
A DeLay ally, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), said Republicans “are going to have to respond in kind” by filing ethics charges against key Democrats. From now on, he said in an interview, it’s a matter of “you kill my dog, I’ll kill your cat.” Doolittle said he plans to file ethics charges against a prominent Democrat but would not name the target.
That was a month ago this week. Since then, nothing’s happened. Did the GOP get cold feet? Sort of — they concluded that an ethics war benefited Dems far more than Republicans.
Publicly, Republican lawmakers have explained their lack of a response by dismissing Bell’s 187-page complaint as “frivolous” and a symptom of Democrats’ alleged inability to craft a substantive agenda.
But privately, many GOP Members and aides said they have reached a strategic conclusion: If there’s an ethics war, they can’t win.
It’s not that GOP lawmakers believe they are guilty of more ethical transgressions than the Dems — though that is certainly the case — but rather they’re concerned that the public relations consequences of an ethics war hurts the party in charge more than the minority.
“The prevailing attitude is that if you throw mud on each other the institution gets tarred and that doesn’t help us,” explained a senior Republican leadership aide.
Stories about a fractious House too busy squabbling to pass important legislation would presumably reflect badly on both parties. But some Republicans believe that a partisan food fight would have far more dire consequences for their side of the aisle, as voters would be inclined to blame the majority for its inability to control the chamber.
I’m very much inclined to agree. Voters would hear a garbled mess of accusations and probably lose sight of which charges have merit. The image would be one of a House in partisan “chaos,” which only fuels an anti-incumbent mood. With this in mind, the GOP’s calculated restraint makes sense.
On the other hand, the absence of multiple ethics complaints highlight’s DeLay’s troubles as unique — he’s the only House member to be under an ethics investigation for the last seven years — making his scandals all the more noteworthy.