[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 49 (Thursday, April 21, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H2458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               DEMOCRAT CAMPAIGN AGAINST MAJORITY LEADER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, the Democrat leadership has led their party 
on a campaign against the Republican majority leader, the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. DeLay), through baseless character assassinations and 
misleading attacks. It is time to start hearing the truth, though.
  The media reported yet that the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), a 
Democrat, disclosed in 2001 that a registered lobbyist paid for her 
trip to Puerto Rico, a trip the minority leader was also on, in clear 
violation of House rules.
  On February 28, the minority leader, the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Pelosi), publicly called for an investigation by the Committee on 
Standards of Official Conduct of the majority leader. The gentlewoman 
from California (Ms. Pelosi) stated: ``These are substantive 
allegations,'' that must be ``fully investigated by the Ethics 
Committee.''

                              {time}  1745

  But so far there have been no calls for an investigation of the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) or the gentlewoman from Ohio 
(Mrs. Jones) by the rest of the Democrat leadership. Is this hypocrisy? 
Democrats want to apply the House rules, but they do not want to apply 
the rules to themselves. Let us see if the Democrats really care about 
ethics or if they are more interested in personal attacks.
  I believe these developments are further evidence that the Democrats 
are not interested in taking a thorough, honest look into the 
allegations against the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay); all they want 
to do is obstruct the work of the House of Representatives.
  Yesterday Republican leaders of the House Committee on Standards of 
Official Conduct agreed to impanel a formal investigation into the 
recent allegations regarding the majority leader, but Democrats flatly 
refused to allow the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to 
begin the work this year.
  Instead of allowing the case to be heard in an appropriate venue, an 
investigation by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, 
Democrats are trying to use the media to launch a partisan, politically 
motivated attack against the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the 
majority leader, rather than giving the gentleman from Texas an 
appropriate opportunity to respond.
  Majority Leader DeLay has said over and over that he has done nothing 
wrong, and has expressed his desire to publicly present and state his 
case. Indeed, he wants an ethics hearing to clear his good name and to 
keep ethics from being used for partisan, political purposes.
  Appearing before the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is 
the most appropriate venue for this to happen. The refusal to even 
allow the case to be heard before the Committee on Standards of 
Official Conduct is clear evidence that the Democrat leadership is not 
concerned about seeing this matter reviewed. They only want to use this 
situation to obstruct the legislative process.
  It is a move carefully designed by partisan political hacks, 
carefully designed to achieve nothing more than purely partisan 
political gain. These actions obstruct legislation that the American 
people want.
  So far under the majority leader's leadership, Republicans have 
passed a comprehensive energy policy, killed the death tax for small 
businesses and family-owned businesses, improved America's highways by 
passing a transportation bill, passed tort reform, passed bankruptcy 
reform, and is poised to modernize and strengthen our Social Security 
system.
  Rather than effect change through elections, they have chosen, the 
Democrat leadership has chosen, to use partisan attacks and a 
conspiracy of character assassination to destroy the reputation of one 
of the most successful legislative leaders in this century and in the 
last century and, in fact, in congressional history.
  Mr. Speaker, there is nothing more unethical than falsely accusing 
another human being in order to destroy that person's reputation. There 
is nothing more unethical, there is nothing more disgraceful than 
falsely accusing another human being. That is what the Democrat 
leadership has done, that is what the minority leader and the gentleman 
from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) are doing. They are stonewalling the ethics 
process for partisan gain, and we will not stand for it.
  We ask the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) and the 
Democratic leadership to stop these attacks. Call off the dogs.
  Mr. Speaker, we need a reasonable ethics process in this House. We 
need to say enough is enough when it comes to partisan political 
attacks. Let us move forward with the American people's agenda.

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