In reporting ethics probe of Foley scandal, media largely ignore controversy surrounding ethics chair Hastings, hand-picked by GOP leadership

At an October 5 press conference, House ethics committee chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) announced that the committee had voted unanimously to form a subcommittee to investigate the scandal surrounding Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL). But even though Hastings also stated during the press conference that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) "has done an excellent job," few media outlets noted his reputation as a Hastert loyalist or his controversial actions since being appointed committee chairman by the GOP House leadership in February 2005.

At the press conference, Hastings told reporters that the probe will take "weeks, not months" and "will go wherever our evidence leads us." Further, he asserted that Hastert "has done an excellent job," leading a reporter to ask, "Can you really be objective in assessing what blame he might have as a result of this matter?" Hastings responded, "[W]hat we want to do is focus on what is at hand, and we take that responsibility very, very seriously." He later stated that the remark was "not related to the matter at hand here." When asked whether the subcommittee planned to subpoena Hastert, he refused to comment.

In their coverage of this development, numerous media outlets alluded to the controversy that has surrounded the committee since it admonished former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) in late 2004 but ignored the questions regarding Hastings's appointment as chairman in February 2005 and his conduct since taking over the post. An October 6 New York Times article by reporter Carl Hulse simply noted that the committee had been "paralyzed by partisan conflict until recently." In an October 5 article headlined, "Chairman of House ethics committee faces daunting task," McClatchy Newspapers' Les Blumenthal vaguely reported that Hastings and former ranking ethics committee member Alan Mollohan (D-WV) had been at "loggerheads over a number of issues, including the makeup of the committee staff," but offered no further details. An Associated Press article by reporter Andrew Taylor, meanwhile, made no mention of the committee's controversial recent history. Neither did October 5 reports on NBC's Nightly News, ABC's World News with Charles Gibson and CBS' Evening News.

By contrast, The Washington Post noted that the committee "has a stormy history, in part because Hastert replaced key members in early 2005 as the panel was investigating" DeLay. The Los Angeles Times reported that Democratic committee members had "accus[ed] their GOP counterparts of avoiding investigations of powerful Republicans." And USA Today noted that Hastings, during his re-election campaign in 2000, received $2,500 from Hastert's political action committee. But even these reports failed to convey the full extent of the controversy surrounding Hastings:

Replacement of Hastings's predecessor was seen as retribution for DeLay admonishments

In October 2004, the House ethics committee -- then chaired by Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO) -- admonished DeLay on three unrelated matters. The committee's action provoked uproar among House Republicans, some of whom reportedly "threatened" Hefley in response. While Hefley subsequently indicated his desire to stay on as chairman, Hastert removed him from the committee on February 2, 2005, and replaced him with Hastings -- a decision "widely seen as being designed to rein in a committee ... that many GOP lawmakers believe had spun out of control," as The Hill reported at the time. Indeed, the perception was widespread that Hastings would be a more loyal chairman than Hefley and that his appointment was retribution for the DeLay admonishments. A February 3, 2005, New York Times article noted that Hastings is "seen as ... an ally of Mr. Hastert." The Washington Post described Hastings as a party "loyalist" and noted that he had "carried out other sensitive leadership assignments." In appointing him, the Post reported, "House Republican leaders tightened their control over the ethics committee." And Hefley himself told the Post "he believe[d] he was removed because he was too independent."

Once in office, Hastings fired veteran nonpartisan staffers

Several weeks after taking over as chairman, Hastings furthered the perception that he was more compliant to Hastert's wishes than his predecessor when he fired two respected members of the committee's professional staff: staff director and chief counsel John Vargo and counsel Paul Lewis, both of whom had worked on the committee since the mid-1990s. Numerous government watchdog groups immediately lambasted the decision. A February 17, 2005, Roll Call article reported Democracy 21 president Fred Wertheimer's response: "The decision of House ethics committee Chairman Doc Hastings to fire professional staff members of the ethics committee is just the latest step in the wholesale purging of the ethics committee by House Republican leaders."

Hastings attempted to appoint his longtime aide as staff director

After firing Vargo, Hastings announced his intent to fill the position of staff director with Ed Cassidy, his chief of staff for the previous decade, over the objections of Democratic committee members. While ethics committee rules require the staff to be nonpartisan and approved by a majority of the committee, Hastings attempted to circumvent this requirement by citing a separate provision that allows both the chairman and ranking member to appoint one staff member without majority support. House Democrats strongly opposed Hastings's effort to give a partisan aide authority over the committee's professional staff. According to a May 12, 2005, Roll Call article, then-ranking member Mollohan said, "The rules are simple, their intent is clear, and the mischief that can happen if you operate outside the rules is clearly apparent." Roll Call also noted that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had, in a letter to Hastert, made clear that the committee could not proceed with its regular business "until there is an assurance that the Committee's professional staff will continue to be a nonpartisan staff." The Hill reported in June 2005 that Mollohan and Hastings reached an agreement on the staffing dispute, with the committee hiring a new staff director and four investigative lawyers.

Hastings reneged on his 2005 pledge to pursue DeLay investigation

In April 2005, Hastings offered to launch an immediate subcommittee investigation into allegations regarding DeLay's "travel and other actions" once he and Mollohan had resolved the dispute over the ethics committee rules. At the time, the Democratic committee members opposed a rules change passed by the House on January 4, 2005, that required an ethics complaint to be dismissed if the committee's five Democrat members and five Republican members deadlocked over how to proceed. The new rules were criticized as an effort to protect against future scrutiny of Republican lawmakers' conduct and the House ultimately rescinded them on April 27, 2005. But when questioned about his previous pledge in December 2005, Hastings revised his position, saying that the offer had been "extraordinary" and outside of "regular order." "We're going to start all over," Hastings told The Hill.