House Ethics Committee will not investigate Delay
Seattle Times
WASHINGTON — Rep. Doc Hastings, the Washington state Republican who chairs the House ethics committee, touched off a political controversy this week with statements supporting embattled Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Hastings told the Yakima Herald-Republic that his committee would not investigate a 15-month-old complaint about DeLay's role in alleged illegal campaign contributions in Texas.
Such an investigation would duplicate the work of the Texas district attorney who obtained indictments against DeLay over the fund-raising issue, Hastings said. "We don't have the resources," he added.
A Hastings spokeswoman later said the congressman wasn't ruling out an investigation after the criminal case.
In the Yakima interview, Hastings also suggested that the case brought by Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle in Austin, Texas, is a Democratic partisan move.
"If you look at Ronnie Earle's background, he's done these things," Hastings said. "The majority leader has said this is a political vendetta."
DeLay stepped down as House majority leader after the first indictment, for criminal conspiracy, was handed up last week. He was indicted on two money-laundering counts this week.
Hastings' comments were criticized by Democrats and some public-interest groups.
"It's outrageous for the chairman of the ethics committee to virtually endorse the idea that the indictment is a political vendetta. It's a matter that is before the committee," said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
