COLUMN: GOP's ethics violations inflated by Democrats

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by Willy Hwang

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To underscore the extent to which the Democrats have abused the Ethics Committee, in 1989 alone the Democrats filed 467 allegations against Newt Gingrich, with none resulting in evidence of wrongdoing. In contrast, the Democratic National Committee's return of illegal campaign contributions clearly demonstrates the seriousness and extent of legal infractions by their own party. Perhaps the Democrats should clean up their proven acts of crime before making irresponsible attacks of dubious authenticity.

Since 1994 the Democrats have filed an additional 73 ethics charges against the speaker, with the subsequent dismissal of 72.

This deluge of ludicrous allegations resulted in nine Republican House members' refusal to re-elect Gingrich as speaker, but the American people can remain confident that those representatives merely acted for preservation of their political careers in 1998.

Newt Gingrich's admission of error stems not from intentional criminal acts but an honest mistake that any American taxpayer can make. Speaker Gingrich may have attempted to save some time and money by not hiring a tax attorney, but do convenience and frugalness indicate a dearth of character or morals? Democrats allege that Gingrich utilized tax-free money to advance political views, but who are they to define what political views encompass? Any opinion can be construed as political if a politician expresses it.

In their shameless hypocrisy, Democrats even attempted to make an issue of Gingrich's right to free speech when he wrote a book. They claimed that Gingrich exploited his position as House speaker for monetary gain. Since when have senators, governors and other elected officials committed a crime by writing books?

Didn't Hillary Clinton's book profit from Bill Clinton's presidency? Should we trample on the constitutional rights of officeholders and prohibit their free expression of ideas in books, essays or magazine articles?

Despite any minor shortcomings, Gingrich's ethical standards far surpass President Clinton's sorry excuse for integrity. Contrary to what the media and Democrats would have us believe, Speaker Gingrich has not committed any heinous crimes on the grand scale of President Clinton's ongoing scandals.

Willy Hwang is a Will Rice College freshman.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the January 24, 1997 issue.

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