Case Against Gingrich Lost In Partisan Battling

The collapse of bipartisan cooperation in the House Ethics Committee’s investigation of Speaker Newt Gingrich has stripped away all pretenses of mutual consideration in the House and pitted Republicans against Democrats in open political combat.

The committee’s case against Gingrich - that he improperly funneled contributions through tax-exempt foundations for partisan purposes and then didn’t tell investigators the truth about it - appears to be in danger of getting lost in the fog of partisan war.

Indeed, the facts of the case are rapidly being submerged beneath the GOP leadership’s vigorous efforts to minimize the damage to Gingrich in order to justify a mild penalty - and thus keep him in charge of the House.

And the Democrats are scrambling to see if they can keep building enough pressure to further embarrass and discredit Gingrich - but appear to be losing the battle.

The process took another strange turn Friday after newspapers published the transcript of a taped cellular-phone conversation among Gingrich and several allies.

The disclosure raised questions about whether Gingrich violated an agreement with the Ethics Committee not to criticize its findings in the case.

Since an investigative subcommittee of the ethics panel cited Gingrich on Dec. 21 for behavior that brought discredit on the House, partisan tensions have steadily risen in the bipartisan committee - which had a tradition as a bastion of impartiality.

All of that went up in smoke this week, however, after the panel’s five Democrats - in an unprecedented move - called a televised news conference to complain about the GOP leadership’s insistence that a vote on a penalty for Gingrich occur on Jan. 21, before a special counsel’s full report of the charges against him was released to the House on Feb. 4.

The panel’s five Republicans, led by chairwoman Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, trooped to the TV cameras and called off five days of public hearings in the case that were scheduled to begin on Monday.

Noting that Democrats had complained about this sequence of events, Johnson said, “I have instructed special counsel Jim Cole to complete (his) report by January 16 for circulation to the public and to every member of the House. Following that, we anticipate a public hearing.”

In short, instead of the week’s worth of embarrassing hearings that Democrats had hoped for, Republicans trumped them with just a one-day hearing, with a vote expected on Jan. 21, while appearing at the same time to concede to their complaint about putting the verdict before the trial.