GOP offers to scrap House ethics rules

Hastert blinked. The impasse that has been holding up the DeLay investigation seems to be dissolving. But what is the Lapdog up to?

In a letter to the speaker dated April 12 but kept private, Pelosi also called on the Illinois Republican to urge Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the panel’s chairman, to abandon plans to name his chief as staff director for the committee.

“I cannot imagine a staffing arrangement more damaging to the nonpartisan character of the committee,” she wrote in the letter.

Update: Thursday's TCH reports that Hastings has withdrawn the appointment. The staff director will be appointed by bipartisan consensus as has been done previously.