Early this year, the House of Representatives passed a slate of new rules making it virtually impossible to investigate members for ethical infractions. At the genesis of the measure were the three ethics violations of Majority Leader Tom DeLay during the last Congress. Now, as Alexander Bolton and Patrick O'Connor report in The Hill, a key Republican has joined the fight to overturn the weakened ethics rules.

Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), the former chairman of the House ethics committee, said yesterday that he will co-sponsor a bill to repeal or revise changes that Republican leaders made to the committee’s procedure at the start of the 109th Congress.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Alan Mollohan (W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the ethics committee, who along with four other Democrats has refused to adopt new rules for the committee until his proposed changes to ethics procedures are adopted or given serious consideration.

More than 190 House Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill since Mollohan introduced it two weeks ago. Thus far, only one Republican, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) has signed up as a co-sponsor. But Hefley’s support is expected to provide incentive and political cover to other Republicans who are thinking about supporting the ethics legislation.

Good government is a cliche that is too often bandied about, but it nevertheless applies in this case. The Republicans have installed bad government in Washington over the past decade in which the lines between lobbyists and Congressmen have been effectively removed. This leads to poor legislation that benefits the few at the detriment to the many.

If the Democrats truly want to retake the House in 2006, it is imperative that they create a comprehensive plan to clean up Washington. This plan must also be articulated clearly. This means no more 150-page PDFs or 62-bullet presentations. Whittle down the prose to five or six points that resonate with the American people, and they will give Nancy Pelosi the Speaker's gavel.

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[Update 9:59 PM Pacific]: Hans Nichols has more on the effort to overturn the weakened ethics rules in another article in The Hill.

Democratic leaders are taking the unusual step of whipping up co-sponsors on Rep. Alan Mollohan’s (D-W.Va.) bill to revamp House ethics procedures, aiming to get unanimous backing before they focus their efforts on pressuring centrist Republicans.

As of yesterday morning, 196 Democrats had signed on to a bill that was introduced March 1. In the evening, that number broke 200, allowing House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to focus his efforts on the three Democratic lawmakers who have yet to sign on to the bill — Doris Matsui (Calif.), Cynthia McKinney (Ga.) and David Obey (Wis.).

Democrats believe that their near unanimous support will allow them to pressure Republican leaders to schedule a vote as well as peel off any reform-minded Republicans, Democratic leadership aides said.

This measure might actually pass...