GOP Offers Probe Of DeLay's Actions. Democrats Unsatisfied by Rules. - Democrats are correct in insisting that the rules go back the way they were.

House Republicans yesterday offered to open an investigation into overseas travel and other activities by Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), as part of an effort to resolve a three-month impasse with the Democrats that has kept the ethics committee from functioning.

With questions mounting about DeLay's past dealings with lobbyists, ethics committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said he would name Rep. Melissa Hart (R-Pa.), a lawyer who sits on the committee, to head a subcommittee to "review various allegations concerning travel and other actions by Mr. DeLay." Hastings said it would be up to Hart's panel to decide whether to bring in an outside counsel.

But Democrats said the concessions outlined by Hastings did not address their chief objections to rule changes that the Republicans pushed through in January, most notably a new provision that would cause a complaint to be dismissed -- rather than lingering in limbo -- if the chairman and ranking minority party member cannot agree on whether to take up the case.

(4-21-05, The Washington Post.)

Also you may want to see the 4-21-05 The Hill (Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), ranking member of the ethics committee, said that Hastings’s offer was meaningless in light of the new rules and called on Republicans to take his proposal to reinstate the old rules in “good faith and move to the floor.”)