Now for an observation. The House Ethics Committee has been deadlocked for some time now over the change in the rules that were pushed through last year. As I understand it the new rules made the following change. Previously if there was a concern raised and the Republican Chairman and the Democratic ranking member of the committee could not reach a consensus on whether or not to investigate an investigation had to be done after 45 days. This seems like a good rule to me. If the committee can't decide if there has been a violation on the presented facts then an investigation needs to be done to get more information. The new rules basically state that if a consensus is not reached then after 45 days nothing happens. NOTHING HAPPENS unless a majority vote of the 10 memeber committee calls for it.

So basically if a congressperson behaves unethically and the ranking officials of the two parties hold out on calling for an investigation then nothing really happens. This of course assumes that the majority vote couldn't be accomplished. In a way it's beautiful. Really it is, in the same way that a great drive by Tiger Woods, or a performance of a concert pianist is. Seeing something done at its best is truly a magnificent site. In this case it just happens to be corruption raised to an art form.

The part that really raises this to an art is the way the debate on this issue has been framed. The republicans are making the statement that the democratic opposition to this change is merely "playing politics" and is "keeping any real work from being done." A quote from a republican senator I heard on NPR yesterday boiled down to saying that the republicans are results oriented while the Dems are merely wasting time over the process. So basically the ends justify the means. How pragmatic, how absolutely Nixonian(if that's not a word it sure should be!).

It makes me wonder how these people can sleep at night