Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday, January 6, 2005
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■ In my opinion
DeLay
The 109th Congress convened for
the first time Tuesday, but the usual
partisan horseplay was already
ahead of schedule — and this time
for the better: Majority Leader Tom
DeLay, R-Texas, asked fellow House
Republicans at a Monday night meet
ing for a reversal of an (ethically du
bious) rule passed late last year that
strips an 11-year-old party ethics rule
from the books, permitting indicted
congressmen to continue holding
chamber leadership positions.
Why were legislators so interested
in rewriting guidelines at the end of
a session? Well, DeLay is presently
under investigation in Tfavis County,
Texas, for illegal use of some $2.5
million in corporate money to help
Republicans win state legislative
races in 2002; a grand jury has al
ready indicted three of his associates
in the case.
(Don’t think that this was a push
for a legislative supermajority: Re
publicans have a tougher hand in
Texan state politics than their seven
election streak of red state-ness sug
gests. That year marked the first time
the GOP held a majority in the Texas
State House of Representatives
since Reconstruction.)
Anyway, with the old language in
tact, an indictment of DeLay would
force the majority leader to step
down from his post. Under the Re
publicans’ new but rescinded rule —
unsympathetically nicknamed the
DeLay Rule — an indictment
would instead trigger a review
by a party steering committee to de
termine whether the charges war
TRAVIS WILLSE
RIVALLESS WIT
rant removal. The change, which
would have stripped much account
ability from the authority of the in
creasingly ideologically centralized
congressional Republican leader
ship, drew fire.
“We have gone from DeLay being
judged by his peers to DeLay being
judged by his buddies,” lamented
Fred Wertheimer, president of
the Washington watchdog group
Democracy 21.
Rank-and-file Republicans natural
ly (and moreover reasonably)
obliged DeLay’s request, happy to
avoid a deserved imbroglio over un
justifiably tweaking the rules.
Count Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.
— who with some other Republicans
opposed the original rule change —
was among the relieved: He told
CNN, “It takes a big man to do what
he did, and a smart politician. This
allows us to stick together.”
Behind this rule shuffling sits a
plainer but more sinister story:
House leaders nearly unraveled im
portant ethical codes, trading down
relative moral clarity for political po
tency. Conflicts between ethical and
political aspirations are neither new
nor surprising. But, of course, that’s
why guidelines like those threatened
in recent months exist in the first
place: to illuminate and respond to
those conflicts in accordance with
the public interest.
DeLay takes a dim view of the po
tential indictment: “This has been a
dragged out 500-day investigation,
and you do the political math,” he
told CBS News. “This is no different
than other kinds of partisan attacks
that have been leveled against me
that are dropped after elections.”
DeLay’s historical appeal is shaky:
The House ethics committee rebuked
him three times in October and No
vember, once for offering to trade an
endorsement of a lawmaker’s son in
exchange for a vote in favor of
Medicare legislation.
All that aside, the threat of base
less attacks designed to destabilize a
party’s leadership is a poor excuse to
drop ethics rules: It’s exactly the
grand jury’s place to filter the slings
and arrows, determine which are le
gitimate and which are partisan non
sense. Dropping the rules in question
would short-circuit the process, put
ting the decision in the hands of a
possibly unduly sympathetic
steering committee.
This incident, however well-end
ed, should leave a public wary of fu
ture changes to congressional guide
lines. If the above is any example,
legislators rarely roll back ethics
rules to improve the ethical charac
ter of politics.
traviswillse@dailyemerald. com
INBOX
Marriage made 'lackluster
by lack of seriousness
Marriage is not something to be
taken lightly. In fact, of all choices and
directions in life, marriage should be
among the most important decisions
a person can make. I am tired of the
left side blaming the right side of be
ing close-minded in response to keep
ing marriage traditional. I am also
tired of the right side blaming the left
for decimating the traditional values
of marriage in pursuit of their own
minority agenda. Both liberals and
conservatives are guilty of making
marriage a lackluster fact of life.
Marriage is not about convenience,
tax relief or furthering individual self
interests. A very long time ago, mar
riage was a life-long commitment
made between two consenting adults
in hopes that their lives would be bet
ter off together than apart. Excuse the
cliche but marriage was made in
hopes of a “happily ever after.”
r
Marriage has never been easy and
never will become an easy arrange
ment. Marriage was designed to be a
long-term permanent arrangement, or
perhaps brides and grooms across the
globe weren’t paying attention when
they were saying the very important
“for better or worse, until death do us
part” portion of the marriage ceremo
ny. If people actually took marriage
seriously perhaps the divorce rate
wouldn’t be so high, states wouldn’t
need legislation to limit divorce and
people could drop a lot of unnecessary
emotional baggage. So please, stop the
bickering about which side destroyed
marriage first. Marriage gets destroyed
the moment it is taken lightly.
Jenifer Morrison
Business administration
Unsafe Beltline should
receive priority funding
As if holiday traffic wasn’t enough
on Coburg Road, I witnessed the
stop-and-go traffic and a huge exodus
of cars due to another accident on
Beltline. I understand there are acci
dents on Beltline almost daily, espe
cially during the holidays. Beltline has
proven to be an unsafe highway that
should be first for highway funding in
Lane County.
Sections of 1-105 will be partially
closed in 2005 for repairs. This will
add additional traffic on Beltline and
necessitates slower speed limits until
we can invest in the needed improve
ments. If you’ve experienced acci
dents or stalled traffic on Beltline, and
you want safer travel, please call your
city and county elected officials.
Meanwhile I plan to avoid Beltline.
I also plan to speak up and urge safety
as first priority for road building
funds, not more money spent on the
$180 million boondoggle of West Eu
gene Parkway.
Ruth Duemler
Eugene
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CORRECTION
Due to a copy editing error, the summary for the
Wednesday article “Commentator mission rejected" was
inaccurate. The summary stated that the Oregon Com
mentator magazine objected to the “ASUO committee’s
decision to cut its funding.” The ASUO Programs Finance
Committee has not made any decisions to cut the maga
zine's funding.
The Emerald regrets the error.
■ Editorial
Doing right
thing just
not 'feasible'
forASUO
Nearly three months have passed since an
undisclosed group of self-described “cocky,
smooth, motherfuckers” from our student
government violated conduct code and Ore
gon Administrative Rules during an Oct. 8-10
Sunriver retreat by drinking alcohol and
smoking marijuana.
More than a month has passed since
the ASUO decided to take group responsibility
for the violations. By way of punishment,
ASUO officials proposed fundraising and/or
garnishing of wages as a way to restore the
approximately $3,200 of student incidental
fees spent on housing and transportation for
the retreat.
At the time, ASUO Public Relations Direc
tor Nathan Strauss said of the group
punishment: “It was just the responsible
thing to do.”
Now the rhetoric has changed. Certain
members of student government are question
ing the “feasibility” of repaying the
money. However, since they have insisted
on taking group responsibility for their ac
tions, everyone on the retreat would either
have to pay or fundraise less than $100 in or
der to repay the money in full. That seems
more than feasible.
Furthermore, if individuals don’t want
to pay back the money when they’ve done
nothing wrong, then they should drop this
group responsibility farce and let those
who’ve broken the law pay for what they’ve
done personally.
While producing a dos-and-don’ts video
(hopefully not using incidental fees) and
forming a committee are two great steps to
ward guarding against future misconduct,
paying the money back is a crucial step to
ward making right what they did wrong in the
first place.
The bottom line is this: Student money
that is inappropriately used should be paid
back. Certain ASUOians will argue that the
money was not used inappropriately because
the retreat served a valuable function for the
group, in addition to its more “taboo”
components. But just because useful work oc
curred at the retreat does not mean that the
funds were used appropriately. Helpful
byproducts do not justify inappropriate use of
student money.
Don’t forget the note written in the guest
book of one of the houses rented by ASUO
members in Sunriver: “Do you pay incidental
fees at the Univ. of Oregon? If so, your
money just paid for six people to sleep here
for two nights. We got drunk, played taboo,
and learned about the finance system, all
on your dime. We are some cocky,
smooth, motherfuckers. ”
The ASUO’s lame excuses for refusing to do
the responsible thing is further evidence that
they just don’t care about the student body
and our dime. When elections come around,
the student body should kick the entire group
out of office.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jennifer Sudick
Editor in Chief
David Jagernauth
Editorial Editor
Steven R. Neuman
Managing Editor
Gabe Bradley
Freelance Editor