Pressure forces Republicans to investigate DeLay

With polls showing the approval rating of congress continues to fall and almost daily revelations of unethical behavior on the part of Tom DeLay the Republicans have been forced to investigate him.

Republicans on the House ethics committee said today that they were ready to open an investigation into Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, one of the House's most powerful members, to deflate Democrats' charges that Republicans are trying to protect Mr. DeLay.

The committee chairman, Representative Doc Hastings, Republican of Washington, appeared with three of the four other Republicans on the panel to announce the decision. The Republicans, Mr. Hastings said, "are all prepared to vote at the earliest opportunity" to impanel a subcommittee to look into allegations against Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader.

The latest allegations against Mr. DeLay have to do with his overseas travel arrangements. Last year, the ethics committee admonished him on other issues, including an attempt to pressure a lawmaker on a Medicare-related vote.

Even if nothing comes of it and it turns out to be a whitewash it will be keeping the DeLay name and the word ethics in the same sentences for months to come. The appearance of a whitewash could also damge the Republicans in 2006.