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Looks like the GOP leadership in the House has pulled a big ol' flip flop on proposed changes to its ethics rules:

House Republican leaders last night abandoned a proposal to loosen rules governing members' ethical conduct, as they yielded to pressure from rank-and-file lawmakers concerned that the party was sending the wrong message. The proposal would have made it more difficult for lawmakers to discipline a colleague for unethical behavior and would have allowed Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) to keep his post if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury that is looking into his campaign finance practices. The sudden reversal came amid growing indications of dissension within the GOP. Just before House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's office announced that the measures were being dropped, the chairman of the House ethics committee issued an unusual statement denouncing the leadership's plan. Rep. Joel Hefley (Colo.), who appeared on the verge of being forced out as chairman after his committee voted three times last year to admonish DeLay, issued a statement criticizing the proposed rules changes as highly partisan and not in the best interests of the House. "Ethics reform must be bipartisan and this package is not bipartisan," Hefley said in the statement after sending Republican colleagues a letter outlining his objections.

Lest everyone think they've suddenly gone on moral on us, however, they have gone ahead with a few other more minor changes. But... the most egregious changes have been scuttled, including a reversal on a change meant to protect DeLay.

I don't suspect this is the last we'll hear about this issue. And I wonder... In many ways this whole series of events strikes me as very similar to a critical mistake Clinton made at the beginning of his first term. Flush from a resounding victory, one of his first moves in office was to change the military's policies on homosexuality. In that case, the changes made sense, but the timing of the announcement could not possibly have been worse. Here, both the changes and the timing was just idiotic, causing needless headaches for the GOP.

I had expected a civil war to break out by February, sure, but never in a million years would I have guessed it would have started over something so ridiculous. My advice to the Dems? I'll borrow a line from James Carville: "When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil."

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