Demagogue

There must be at least one flying around the Capital somewhere because two members of the House Ethics Committee just did something ethical.

Two Republicans on the House ethics committee will not participate in any investigation of Majority Leader Tom DeLay because they contributed to DeLay's legal defense funds, the committee's chairman said Wednesday.

Rep. Doc Hastings said the committee members — Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma — agreed that the past contributions "raised doubts — however unwarranted — about whether those members would be able to judge fairly allegations of impropriety against Mr. DeLay."

Granted they don't seem to have too strong a grasp of the concept of "conflict of interest" but they still did the right thing.