GOP’s Fear of Losing Precludes Ethics War [View All]

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/50_7/news/6248-1.html (subscription required)

Despite ominous predictions of a pending war coming from both sides of the aisle, no Republican has retaliated against Rep. Chris Bell (Texas) or any other Democrat in the month since the lame-duck lawmaker filed an ethics complaint against Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

Publicly, Republican lawmakers have explained their lack of a response by dismissing Bell’s 187-page complaint as “frivolous” and a symptom of Democrats’ alleged inability to craft a substantive agenda.

But privately, many GOP Members and aides said they have reached a strategic conclusion: If there’s an ethics war, they can’t win.

“The prevailing attitude is that if you throw mud on each other the institution gets tarred and that doesn’t help us,” explained a senior Republican leadership aide.