Republicants Back Down

It's amazing to me how Republicans can manage to spin any situation to make themselves seem like the guys in the white hats. A particularly telling example arrived today when Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay backpedalled (read: sacrificed their own careers for what is right) by revoking their call for the loosening of ethics rules. The original proposals, intended to rescue DeLay from his moral woes, were reconsidered after Demos succeeded in making this legislation an issue.

DeLay announced that he no longer wants party leaders to be able to retain their positions after being indicted for ethics violations, a position in which he currently finds himself. His Republican colleagues are expressing their admiration for his action calling it "courageous" and saying that he is "taking a bullet for the team".

Hastert has withdrawn his proposal to make it harder for Congressman to be brought up on ethics charges.

A spokesman maintains that their original policy decision was "the right thing to do," but says they have backed off because it was becoming a distraction. Yeah, Watergate was a distraction as well.

This is called damage control (and begrudgingly enacted damage control at that), not selfless acts of heroism.