House ethics panel to open Delay investigation

WASHINGTON -- Retreating under pressure, Republicans on the House ethics committee said Wednesday they were ready to open an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing against Majority Leader Tom DeLay.\nFour of the five Republicans on the committee were ready to move ahead, said Rep. Doc Hastings, the panel's Republican chairman. The panel also has five Democratic members.\nThe Republicans were "prepared to vote at the earliest opportunity to empanel an investigations subcommittee to review various allegations concerning travel and other actions" by DeLay, he said.\nThe ethics committee has authority to start an investigation based on information it receives "through public and other sources," Hastings said.\nHastings made his announcement in hopes of breaking a deadlock that has prevented the ethics panel from getting down to business for the year.\nThere was no immediate reaction from Rep. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the panel.\nDeLay has said repeatedly he hopes to appear soon before the panel to clear up questions about his actions.\nThe Texan has come under intense scrutiny in recent months, in part over questions about overseas trips he took over the past several years.\nThe ethics committee admonished him last year in connection with other allegations. House Republicans unilaterally pushed through a change in the ethics rules in the following months -- changes that Democrats argue were designed to shield the majority leader from further scrutiny.\nAs a result, Democrats have refused to allow the ethics panel to begin work in the new year.\nHastings had earlier offered to amend the rules that the Republicans had forced through the House. Mollohan rejected that offer, and he and other Democrats have been demanding a bipartisan rewrite.\nHastings' comments at a news conference went well beyond a proposed change in the rules, offering an immediate investigation into one of the most powerful lawmakers in Congress.\n"Let me emphasize that this is an unusual and extraordinary step for the committee to take," he said.\nHe was joined at the news conference by three of the other four Republicans on the panel, Reps. Judy Biggert of Illinois, Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania and Tom Cole of Oklahoma. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas did not attend.\nDeLay and other Republicans have insisted in public comments in recent weeks that the charges against him were partisan in nature, the efforts of a minority desperate to regain power.\nAt the same time, there has been growing restiveness among members of the GOP rank and file who were unhappy to be on the receiving end of questions about whether they were merely trying to shelter DeLay from harm.\nHastings would not comment on whether he had spoken to DeLay about the proposal -- but he did say he could not speak with a member "about matters that may or may not come before the ethics committee."\nThe investigation cannot proceed unless Democrats end the stalemate over the rules. Hastings called the proposal "a means by which he (DeLay) can state his case"