In January, House Republicans rammed through a rules change to severly restrict the ethics process in an attempt to shield their leader Tom DeLay from being punished for his improprieties. Now, with Americans finally realizing what the Republicans have actually been up to for the last ten years, the GOP has been forced to rescind the DeLay rule. The Washington Post's Mike Allen has the story:

House Republican leaders, acknowledging that ethics disputes are taking a heavy toll on the party's image, decided yesterday to rescind a controversial rule change that led to the three-month shutdown of the ethics committee, according to officials who participated in the talks.

Republicans touched off a political uproar in January by changing a rule that had required the ethics committee to continue considering a complaint against a House member if there was a deadlock between the committee's five Republicans and five Democrats. The January change reversed this, calling for automatic dismissal of an ethics complaint when a deadlock occurs.

Democrats rebelled against that and other changes -- saying Republicans were trying to protect House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) from further ethics investigations -- and blocked the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the ethics panel is officially known, from organizing for the new Congress.

The Republicans backing down? The Democrats forcing the Republicans' hand? The political climate in Washington and the country must be shifting rapidly if the GOP actually follows through with this. Who'd have ever thunk it? The Democrats have the momentum these days.