WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- In a clear political gambit, House Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., offered Wednesday to open an investigation into allegations of unethical behavior by embattled Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.
The offer came as part of a proposal aimed at breaking the impasse between Republicans on the evenly divided panel and committee Democrats who have refused to accept House ethics rules changes pushed through the body by GOP leaders earlier this year in a party-line vote.
Ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia has led the Democratic revolt against the three GOP-drafted ethics rule changes that he and other critics say weaken the Ethics Committee's investigatory and enforcement abilities.
GOP leaders, however, say the new ethics rules -- which were drafted by only one party for what is believed to be the first time in history -- are needed to stop the leveling of partisan charges against members, such as the mounting ones against DeLay, that he and other Republicans say are driven by a liberal media and partisan hopes to derail his conservative agenda.
Among the changes is the automatic dismissal of any complaint after 45 days if a majority of the panel didn't approve to proceed.
Under previous rules, a complaint would remain under the committee's purvey indefinitely if a majority of the panel could not reach a decision.
Opponents say the move guarantees that all but the most egregious ethics violations will go unpunished because the panel is divided evenly along party lines.
The impasse has kept the panel from moving forward with business this year amid charges that Republicans are trying to protect DeLay, who is plagued by charges of ethical impropriety involving several trips he took that were allegedly underwritten by lobbying interests, his ties to a powerful GOP lobbyist currently under federal investigation, and the indictment of close political allies in Texas for illegal fundraising through a political action committee he helped establish.
Delay has denied any wrongdoing, and GOP leaders have largely rallied around him to protect him from the charges.
"Let me emphasize that this is an unusual and extraordinary step for the committee to take," Hastings said about his proposal to start investigations into the allegations made in the media about DeLay if the Democrats allow the panel to convene under the GOP-backed rules changes when it meets Thursday.
"This should remove any doubt about the true intent of these rules," Hasting added. "They were designed to treat all members more fairly, not to protect any individual member from any action by the committee."
Under Hastings' written proposal, he also guarantees an extension of the minimum period for investigating ethics complaints against House members to at least three months, and for a vote to be held on every complaint.
Those two guarantees, first proposed and rejected by Mollohan last week, fall far short of the sort of reversal of the GOP-drafted House ethics rules that Mollohan has led the fight against for House Democrats.
Mollohan has pushed for a rollback to the previous ethics rules and the establishment of a bipartisan task force to examine the rules governing the panel.
A measure he has crafted to do just that received the support of one additional Republican Tuesday, conservative Rep. Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, who joined former Ethics Committee Chairman Joel Hefley of Colorado and Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut in supporting the proposal.
Shays is a frequent critic of the GOP leadership who has called for DeLay to step down from his leadership post.
Hefley, who was not granted a waiver to continue as head of the ethics panel by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., following the panel's admonishment of DeLay last year, has been highly critical of the rules changes.
Two other GOP lawmakers on the panel along with several bipartisan staffers were also replaced by aides and lawmakers viewed as more attuned to the GOP leadership.
The limited support from across the aisle for repealing the Republican rules changes has meant very little for Democratic efforts to do so as Mollohan remains short of the 218 votes needed to ensure his proposal even receives a vote on the House floor.
In a hastily convened press conference to respond to Hastings' announcement, Mollohan indicate that he will not change his stance or allow the committee to organize because rules changes for the Ethics Committee have traditionally be done in a bipartisan way and those the GOP have come up with would undermine the ethics process.
"In my judgment, the committee cannot organize with those rules because they defeat the very purpose of the committee," said Mollohan.
When asked by United Press International about the motivations behind the offer to initiate an investigation into DeLay's activities, Mollohan said it would be "improper" for him to comment on any matter that could come before the committee.
However, Mollohan made it clear that the proposals made by Hastings would have little positive impact on the rules changes.
He noted that even with an extension of the timeframe for considering ethics charges and a guarantee from the chairman for a vote on all charges, action could not be guaranteed because the likely 5-5 vote would produce no outcome.
In addition, he told Hastings last week that he would not be able to guarantee a vote because there are various scenarios where votes could not occur, such as when the deadline for responding to charges expires during a congressional recess.
"It is an inadequate remedy in any regards," said Mollohan, who added that the rules changes "incentivize avoiding the tough decisions" instead of helping lawmakers do the right thing.
"That is what the rules need to do," he said. "These rules do the opposite."
The rejection of Hastings' proposal leaves few remedies for the impasse.
One idea being floated by Republicans is conducting another vote on the rules on the House floor.
With the rules approved in a party-line vote in the first place and even with the potential defections, GOP leaders will surely be safe from any surprises with their strong majority.
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., dismissed this option Wednesday, noting that Democrats will not back away from their opposition to adopting the rules if Republicans continue to refuse to re-examine them.
"Confirming these rules doesn't make them any better," he said.
He also said that Democrats rejected Hastings "charade" out of hand.
"It is a calculated attempt to divert attention from the fact that the Republican Majority has neutered the Ethics Committee in the House by imposing partisan rules that hamstring any meaningful inquiry, sacking the former Chairman and two other Republican Members of the Committee, and firing non-partisan professional staffers," said Hoyer.
As to the proposal to investigate DeLay, it places Democrats in the difficult position of defending GOP charges that Democrats are actually standing in the way of investigating the mounting accusations of wrongdoing on the part of DeLay as GOP leaders appear at the outset to be willing to look into the matter.
So far, similar arguments have provided little sway for Democrats or helped DeLay's cause in any foreseeable way, but the offer could go a long way in helping link the two in the minds of voters.
This is something Democrats appear to actually be hoping for going into 2006 as they attempt to make DeLay, his ethics problems and his leading of attacks on the judiciary an election-year issue, just under obviously different terms.
But national polls show that few voters outside of his home district and state even know who DeLay is, although recent polls have shown a high level of dissatisfaction with the way Congress is conducting itself generally.
Mollohan argued that the two issues -- DeLay's ethics woes and the Ethics Committee impasse -- are not even connected.
"This rules effort is totally independent from any specific case whatsoever," he said.
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