Ethics be damned.

Remember: this is the party that claims to represent our moral values. I am very pleased to announce that they sure as hell don't represent MINE.

Let's recap: Tom Delay has been rebuked three times by the House Ethics committee for his appalling lack of ethics. Three of his political cronies have been indicted. But when it looked like HE might be indicted, the Republicans changed the rules so that he could keep his post even if he was indicted.

Then, Delay told them that he didn't think he would be charged, so they changed the rule BACK. They no longer had to worry than an ethical rule would apply to them, so they atarted pretending to be ethical again.

Then, they also put forth a proposal that would make it more difficult to rebuke a House member for misconduct. The House has a code of ethics that says that members must behave "at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House." But the Republicans proposed a rule change that would ONLY allow rebuke if they actually broke the law or the House rules. So there could be no rebuke for simply behaving like an unethical shit. And, in a remarkable coincidence, such a rule change would have disallowed the rebuke of Tom Delay.

Then, they made it harder for the House Ethics Committee to investigate its own members. There are five Democrats and five Republicans on the committee. Under the old rule, an investigation could be launched on a tie vote. Under the new, it needs a majority. This means that if members of your own party are unwilling to investigate you, you get off scot-free.

And, just to finally demonstrate what ethical folks they all are, they are going to remove the Chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Joel Hefley. His crime? He allowed scrutiny of Tom Delay's Ethics. The Chairman of the House Ethics Committee will lose his job because he actually DID his job.

Delay will stay, despite having no ethics. Hefley will go because he has some, and to the Republicans, loyalty is more important than right and wrong.

In a truly Orwellian twist, under the Republicans, the House Ethics Committee has decided it has no use for ethics. The Ethics Committee punishes those who are ethical, and rewards those who are not.