(quote) House Republicans abruptly withdrew a proposal to weaken an independent ethics watchdog on Tuesday, in a rocky start to the new Congress.
The 115th session hadn't even formally gaveled in before House GOP leaders held an emergency conference meeting to discuss blowback against the party's vote to gut the chamber's independent ethics watchdog.
The reversal of course came hours after President-elect Donald Trump issued a series of tweets questioning the timing of the changes, which would put the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) under oversight of the House Ethics Committee.
Even before Trump weighed in, a barrage of negative headlines and public outcry made it difficult for Republicans to stand by the measure, especially given that the Republican president-elect had campaigned on a promise to "drain the swamp" of Washington, D.C., of corruption. "We shot ourselves in the foot," Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) told reporters after the conference meeting. (end-quote) Read more here So Trump was
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The angle is that it makes no practical difference because they are going to stack this with people who will do nothing, so this reversal was an easy political win for them with no downside.
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(quote)
House Republicans abruptly withdrew a proposal to weaken an independent ethics watchdog on Tuesday, in a rocky start to the new Congress.
The 115th session hadn't even formally gaveled in before House GOP leaders held an emergency conference meeting to discuss blowback against the party's vote to gut the chamber's independent ethics watchdog.
The reversal of course came hours after President-elect Donald Trump issued a series of tweets questioning the timing of the changes, which would put the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) under oversight of the House Ethics Committee.
Even before Trump weighed in, a barrage of negative headlines and public outcry made it difficult for Republicans to stand by the measure, especially given that the Republican president-elect had campaigned on a promise to "drain the swamp" of Washington, D.C., of corruption.
"We shot ourselves in the foot," Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) told reporters after the conference meeting.
(end-quote)
Read more here So Trump was ( ... )
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