Republicans Push Back Ethics Panel’s Gingrich Hearings

WASHINGTON — In the latest outbreak of partisan bickering that has marked the issue, Republicans on the House Ethics Committee late Thursday announced a delay in public hearings on the punishment of Speaker Newt Gingrich because of Democratic complaints that the GOP was attempting a rush to judgment.

The change was made to allow James M. Cole, the panel’s special counsel, time to finish his written report on the ethics inquiry before a scheduled Jan. 21 vote by the House on the Georgia Republican’s punishment. But pushing the public hearings from Monday, when they had been scheduled to begin, to next Thursday also likely will reduce the number of days set aside for public hearings on Gingrich’s case.

Earlier in the day, the panel’s Democrats had denounced their GOP colleagues for scheduling the full House vote on Gingrich’s punishment even though Cole’s written report was not expected to be available until two weeks later. That initial schedule had been announced by the Ethics Committee on Wednesday. Under that schedule, the panel’s public hearings on the Gingrich matter were to begin Monday.

Democrats said the schedule would mean that lawmakers would be forced to pass judgment on Gingrich without full knowledge of the results of the committee’s two-year investigation.

“Vote and then we will show you the facts” is how Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) characterized the GOP position at an afternoon press conference.

Calling a press conference of their own, committee Republicans Thursday night said they would postpone the start of the public hearings to give Cole more time to work on his report.

The Jan. 21 deadline for a House vote on whatever punishment the committee recommends remained unchanged.

Acknowledging the time crunch, Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) said “no information would be hidden” in the committee’s punishment deliberations.

“Am I proud of the rancor and the bickery and the floor speeches today?” Goss said. “No. I think it demeans the House.”

Indeed, the clash signals a new eruption of partisanship in a case that already has polarized the usually bipartisan ethics panel and almost cost Gingrich his speakership in a close vote Tuesday.

Gingrich last month admitted violating House rules in a deal struck with the ethics panel’s investigative subcommittee. Now the full committee is preparing to close the case by levying punishment.

But even before the panel’s five Republicans and five Democrats begin debating the appropriate sanction for Gingrich, they have been butting heads over the schedule.

The committee met for 14 hours Wednesday to discuss a timetable for the case.

Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, ranking Democrat on the Ethics Committee, expressed outrage Thursday night that Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.), who chairs the panel, would announce postponement of the hearings.

“They can’t do that,” McDermott said. “It takes six votes and they’ve got five.”

Meanwhile, reports of a secretly tape-recorded Gingrich conversation raised new questions about whether he violated his agreement not to organize a counterattack against the Ethics Committee charges. In the recording, which was obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, Gingrich reportedly is heard talking with other Republican leaders about how to handle political and media damage control on the same December day that he promised the ethics panel that he would not involve himself in such actions.

A source familiar with the tape confirmed its existence to the Washington Post on Thursday night and said it could be construed as Gingrich’s breaking the agreement. The tape was made by people who intercepted a cellular telephone transmission with a police scanner.