Spin Dry

From the "This Really Takes Some Balls" department:

House Republicans yesterday called on Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to provide documentation to prove that a Washington lobbyist firm did not pay for a trip she and other Democrats took to Puerto Rico in 2001.

"We feel that such lingering questions undermine the integrity of the institution and we hope [the questions] will be cleared up as soon as possible," wrote Republican Reps. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia.

Note the bit in italics. If any Republican wants to talk about undermining the integrity of the institution, they damn well better start with Tom Delay.

To pull a page from their book, this is obviously partisan bullshit. Um -- the trip was nearly four years ago. And they're just noticing now, why? Oh, that's right. Tom Delay's little ethical problems. Or rather, lack of ethics problems.

File this one under "give me a fucking break." And, if there's any question about Republican motives, remember Henry Hyde's comments, published today:

[Retiring Rep. Henry Hype] veteran republican is also admitting for the first time that the impeachment of Clinton may have been in part political revenge against the democrats for the impeachment proceedings against GOP President Richard Nixon 25 years earlier.

"Was this pay back?" asked Andy Shaw.

"I can't say it wasn't. But I also thought that the Republican Party should stand for something, and if we walked away from this, no matter how difficult, we could be accused of shirking our duty," said Hyde.

Thanks to Eschaton for the pointer to this one. But wow, could it be -- the Republicans admit to having done something in a purely partisan manner? You know -- the same tactic of which they're constantly accusing the Democrats?

Tell you what -- as soon as Tom Delay comes clean on everything, and submits himself to an $85 million investigation, then we'll talk Democratic ethics. It's called "put up or shut up."

For the moment, shut up.