Investigate without delay

Latching on to Ron's earlier post at Running Scared about the latest round of Tom "Bugman" DeLay's legal peccadillos, Nancy Pelosi took up the cry that the ethics committee has to investigate him further. Will they listen?

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today in reaction to a story in the National Journal on Friday alleging that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay violated House ethics rules when a lobbyist paid for DeLay's travel expenses:

"These are substantive allegations that must be added to the ever-growing DeLayGate scandal and fully investigated by the Ethics Committee. The House gift rule clearly states that lobbyists cannot pay a Member's travel expenses, but the expense voucher submitted by lobbyist Jack Abramoff indicates that this is precisely what he did for Mr. DeLay.

"It is imperative that the Ethics Committee live up to its mission and conduct a timely, thorough, and honest inquiry into all of Mr. DeLay's alleged ethical lapses."

Unfortunately, with their recent rules changes, a majority of the ethics committee has to agree to begin an investigation before it can proceed. And if they do not, it dies on the vine. All it will take is for the Republican members of the committee to do nothing, and DeLay's misdeeds will continue to go unchecked and he will not be held accountable.

This is the time to watch them. The test has been put to the GOP in the House, and now they can show if they have any ethics or standards left at all, or whether corruption by majority members is going to simply be left right out in the open.