DeLay Controversy Reveals Moral Lapses

Re “The DeLay Volcano,” editorial, March 18: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is the opposite of what a statesman is meant to be.

The American people are no longer being represented by our elected officials. Something must be done to stop this erosion of our Constitution by getting rid of the Tom DeLays of the world.

Carol Levin

Woodland Hills

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I find it rather appalling to see all the ink going to the House panel investigating the use of steroids by professional baseball players while at the same time the House ethics committee has all but made it impossible to prosecute DeLay for any ethics violations.

Gary W. Priester

Placitas, N.M.

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Re “With DeLay in the Spotlight, Republicans Feeling the Heat,” March 16: So now thrice-admonished Tom DeLay faces yet another ethics rebuke.

The irony is rich: This Republican of Republicans has drawn the attention of the House ethics committee for accepting an expense-paid trip to South Korea from the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council.

The problem is that this council is registered as a foreign agent. In an unusually clear statement of ethical rules, the House forbids its members to accept gifts of any sort from a registered foreign agent.

It seems that the party of morality is showing that inconvenient morals need not be accepted.

Enough already! Either the Republicans stand for probity in all areas of morality or they don’t -- and I use this stark language because that’s the language used by the current Republican majority about anyone else’s moral behavior.

Elizabeth Shadish

Gardena