"The repeated abuses of power by the Majority Leader have earned him three rebukes by the Ethics Committee in a single week, bringing dishonor on this House of Representatives and demonstrating a pattern of unethical behavior.

"Unbelievably, the Majority Leader denies that he has been rebuked. At every stage, he has shown contempt, not contrition. Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he and his Republican defenders insist that these charges are merely partisan attacks. But the bipartisan Ethics Committee voted unanimously to admonish Mr. DeLay. In their seven-page letter to him, the Members wrote that his actions 'went beyond the bounds of acceptable conduct.'

"The Ethics Committee should be commended for acting in a bipartisan manner in the best interest of the House of Representatives. They were not given an easy task, but they put principle above party and did their duty.

"Still, serious allegations about the Majority Leader remain. Recent press reports indicate that he has been personally involved in directing some of the fund-raising activities of a political action committee that is under a grand jury investigation in Texas. The Ethics Committee deferred action on a similar complaint, pending action by the grand jury.

"Given this new information, and our need to restore the honor of this body, I introduced a privileged resolution in the House asking for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate these serious charges. Our duty to this institution and to the people we serve compels us to seek the truth.

[...]

WASHINGTON \ufffd In a burst of activity that ended 16 months of political gridlock, the House ethics committee Wednesday launched a flurry of investigations _ focusing on a Republican linked to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a Democrat at the center of a separate bribery probe.

The bribery investigations of Reps. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and William Jefferson, D-La., will determine whether they violated House rules, but the probes only add to their legal woes. The Justice Department already is conducting bribery investigations of Ney and Jefferson, both of whom have denied wrongdoing.

By targeting a member of each party, committee leaders avoided allegations of partisanship in a year when Democrats are trying to make Republican misconduct a major campaign issue. Despite the inclusion of Jefferson, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called the announcement "long overdue."

The investigations disclosed by the Republican ethics chairman and the senior Democrat on the evenly divided committee were only two of four separate announcements.

The committee leaders also approved an inquiry into whether other lawmakers were involved in a bribery scandal that landed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., in prison with an eight-year sentence. And they said they would have investigated payments of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay's overseas travel _ had he not decided to leave Congress next month.

[...]

"The criminal indictment of Majority Leader Tom Delay is the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people." \ufffd House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.