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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bowing To Protests, Hearings On Gingrich Delayed Gop Agrees To Allow Special Counsel To Complete His Report Before Vote

New York Times

Under a barrage of complaints from Democrats over the timetable for proceeding with the ethics case against Speaker Newt Gingrich, the Republican chairman of the House Ethics Committee Thursday evening postponed scheduled public hearings next week and said that she had ordered the panel’s special counsel to complete his report first.

“We are reversing the order of the schedule announced late last night,” Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, the chairman, said at a news conference. “I have instructed special counsel Jim Cole to complete the report by Jan. 16 for circulation to the public and to every member of Congress. Following that, we anticipate a public hearing.”

Johnson’s about face came at the end of a day in which Democrats reacted angrily to the committee’s plans to delay the release of a full ethics report against Gingrich until after the House votes on his punishment and suggested that the Republican leader was orchestrating the investigation.

The Democrats demanded that the scheduled vote be postponed.

“The Republican leadership is trying to bury the Gingrich ethics case by holding the House vote the day after the President is inaugurated, and by releasing the bipartisan ethics report on the day of the president’s State of the Union Address,” said Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, the Democratic whip and Gingrich’s major political tormentor in the House. “Republicans are hoping to slide this case under the rug, but the American people are watching.”

While the Republicans did not postpone the scheduled vote, Johnson said her action would guarantee that members would have the full report in hand before they decide on the punishment of Gingrich.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said he had filed a motion on Thursday to delay the sanctions vote until after the ethics report has been released to the public. And he said that a second motion he had filed called for all documents concerning the case against Gingrich to be released to the public.

“Just as members of Congress were forced to vote on the re-election of the speaker before the ethics committee had finished its work, so, too, are they now being asked to vote on his punishment before they will be fully informed of the charges and recommendation of punishment,” Miller said. “This is politically and intellectually indefensible.”

A spokesman for the Republican National Campaign Committee called the Democrats’ complaints a political smoke screen to drag out the ethics charges against Gingrich.

“If they are allowed to have their way, we will be doing this until sometime after Easter,” said the spokesman, Rich Galen, who has been answering questions about the committee’s charges.

“There is no end to this in their minds. This will be going on forever.”