The best defense is a good offense

That is the Republican strategy when it comes to defending Tom DeLay. The Hill reports on the Republican strategy, Ethics war is declared and GOP 30 pick up a knife .

Expectations that Republicans will use the ethics committee, officially called the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, to retaliate against Democrats for — as Republicans see it — politicizing the House ethics rules raises the specter that an ethics committee will result in a partisan ethics war.

Many Republicans are upset they had to back down on the ethics issue, I believe the word hubris would apply here.

Some GOP legislators are upset that they were forced to back down on the ethics rules, handing House Democrats a huge political victory. Others, including Hastert, believed that keeping the rules in place would have inflicted significant, long-term damage on House Republicans.