Earlier this week, House Republicans reversed course and rejected dubious Ethics rules changes that were proposed late last year that would have allowed members indicted by state grand juries to remain in a leadership post. Earlier posts on the rules changes are here and here.
The rule changes were transparently proposed to benefit Houston congressman and House Majority “Leader” Tom DeLay in the event a Travis County grand jury indicts him in connection with an investigation of campaign financing that has already resulted in the indictment of three of his political political associates.
In today’s Washington Post, David Ignatius provides this interesting profile of the Colorado representative — Joel Hefley — who decided to take on Mr. DeLay over the change in the ethics rule and, in so doing, pulled out an unlikely victory for Congressional ethics. Read the entire informative piece, which concludes with an astute observation about Mr. Hefley and Congress:

He will pay the price, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He knows he did the right thing. May his number increase.