Tom Delay Twenty

House Republicans overturned the ethics rule which was put in place to protect Tom Delay.

Washington -- In a rare retreat, the Republican-led House overturned contentious rules changes made to the House ethics process on Wednesday, with Republicans saying they were surrendering to the Democrats to try to restore a way to enforce proper conduct in the House.

"I am willing to step back," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the moving force behind ethics revisions forced through by the majority in January.

After a closed-door meeting with House Republicans, Hastert indicated that the reversal was primarily motivated by a need to resolve the torrent of questions surrounding the conduct of Rep. Tom DeLay, the majority leader.

The reversal was a startling turn as Republicans confronted the fallout from a stalled ethics process that Democrats said was rigged to protect DeLay, who was admonished three times by the ethics committee last year. The Republican majority also came under a growing storm of criticism for changing the rules in January in a way that their opponents said would render the committee impotent to pursue wrongdoing by members.

Tom Delay voted yes to change the ethics rules back, but twenty Republicans voted no.

Barton (TX)
Blackburn
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Carter
Cubin
Culberson
Gillmor
Gohmert
King (IA)
McHenry
Otter
Pence
Poe
Price (GA)
Simpson
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Weldon (FL)

The Tom Delay Twenty are Dead-Enders, stick with Delay no matter what. Even after Speaker Hastert told them it was okay.

(Via Talking Points Memo)