WASHINGTON - House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) yesterday waded into the partisan furor swirling around Newt Gingrich's ethics violations, accusing Republicans of engaging in a cover-up to prevent evidence against the House speaker from coming to light before all members decide on his punishment.
Gephardt's accusation came as he criticized the decision by the House GOP to vote on Gingrich's punishment Jan. 21, even though a written report on the case will not be available until late this week and public hearings will have to be conducted through the weekend.
"Why are we rushing to get through this?" he asked on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press." "I think it's only to cover it up, to make sure people don't have the facts. All we've asked for is a normal, reasonable process."
Gephardt's comments mark the first time he has spoken out openly against the Republicans' handling of the affair.
Meanwhile, Republican congressional leaders also went on the attack, with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) demanding a high-level investigation into how a recording of a cellular telephone call potentially damaging to Gingrich ended up being leaked to the news media. Two other leading GOP figures, responding to reports that a Democratic congressman gave the tape to reporters, said if that proves to be so, the House member should resign.
Time magazine, in its current edition, quotes anonymous GOP sources as saying they suspect that Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), a House Ethics Committee member, leaked the recording. But the GOP leaders did not publicly accuse McDermott in their comments yesterday.
Collectively, the developments brought a new level of intensity to the increasingly partisan and bitter affair that threatens to polarize the new Congress as it begins work.
For the moment, Democrats are focusing their fire on the GOP's refusal to delay the full House vote on Gingrich's punishment.
Rep. Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.), head of the GOP congressional campaign committee, said on CNN's "Late Edition" that, to meet a previously agreed upon Jan. 21 deadline for the House vote, televised public hearings by the Ethics Committee on the Gingrich probe would start Friday and could run through next Monday - Inauguration Day. The full House vote on punishment for the Georgia Republican would follow the next day.
While Republicans insist that the tight scheduling is born of a desire to deal with the affair swiftly so Congress can concentrate on the legislative agenda, Democrats see it as one more example of a process whose aim is more about damage control than justice.
"I don't think this is the way we ought to be acting. Let's let the ethics process work," Gephardt said.
Speaking on CBS-TV's "Face the Nation" Lott led the Republican coun
AP PHOTO
Democrats in the U.S. House say Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) was involved in ethics violations.