All you need to know about the modern Republican party [Ben]

From the Washington Post:

The House last night approved one of the most significant changes to its ethics rules in decades, creating for the first time an independent panel empowered to initiate investigations of alleged misconduct by members of the chamber...

The final vote, 229 to 182, belied the measure's controversy in the House; 159 Republicans and 23 Democrats opposed it. Even with two House members under indictment, two others sent to prison, and several others under federal investigation, nearly half the House did not want to submit the body to the scrutiny of a panel not under its control...

Three members will be named by the House speaker, and the other three would be selected by the minority leader.

But the panel will be weaker than some watchdog groups had hoped. An ethics review can be started only if a Democratic appointee and a Republican appointee agree to do so.

The new ethics office will have a staff but lacks subpoena power...

the new panel may actually weaken ethics enforcement, if the ethics committee cedes its investigative duties to a body without subpoena powers.

The bill calls for an independent panel whose members are appointed in equal numbers by both parties. The panel has no subpoena power. An ethics review would ONLY be started if at least one appointee from each party agreed it was warranted.

And YET, 159 out of 198 Republicans voted against the bill. The panel is totally toothless and still they're terrified someone might take a peek behind the curtain. Hey assholes, get your hands out of the damned cookie jar.