Lobbying Changes Divide House GOP

Looks like House Republicans are getting angry that all their comfy corruptions are getting taken away.

Jonathan Weisman of The Washington Post writes:

Just two weeks after House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) pledged to pass far-reaching changes to the rules of lobbying on Capitol Hill, House Republican members pushed back hard against those proposals yesterday, charging that their leaders are overreacting to a growing corruption scandal.

In a tense, 3 1/2 -hour closed-door session, many Republicans challenged virtually every element of the leadership's proposal, from a blanket ban on privately funded travel to stricter limits on gifts to an end to gym privileges for lawmakers-turned-lobbyists. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), a veteran conservative who is seeking a top leadership post, scoffed that Congress knows how to do just two things well -- nothing and overreact, according to witnesses.

GOP leaders did withstand a motion to force every leader but Hastert to stand for reelection today. Yet the motion was backed by 85 of the roughly 200 Republicans at the meeting, after leaders predicted that it would attract little support.

Looks like it's going to be up to Democrats, again.

Among those voting no were some of the House's most powerful and connected members, including Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio), Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Tex.), and former majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

Taken together, yesterday's events suggested that House Republicans are badly divided over how to respond to a scandal that includes the guilty plea of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), the loss of a committee chairmanship by Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), and the cooperation with prosecutors by Abramoff, a once-prominent GOP lobbyist, who pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials.

The entire article can be found here:
Lobbying Changes Divide House GOP

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